


Book 1: A Song in the Dark

by DevinCx, piratenami



Series: Knights of the Old Republic: Outcasts [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Found Family, Gen, Loss, Non-Graphic Violence, Original Character-centric, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-04 03:39:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14011368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevinCx/pseuds/DevinCx, https://archiveofourown.org/users/piratenami/pseuds/piratenami
Summary: Kara Tao Vanden is a girl on a mission.Her family were the guardians of a secret power, one which could destroy the universe in the wrong hands. When her peaceful life on the remote farming world of Derra IV is shattered and her family murdered, Kara flees to protect her legacy from the Sith Lord, Kirennan Venaar.Pursued by his forces, Kara books passage aboard the light freighter Wanderer, and tries to stay one step ahead of the Sith, but Venaar’s reach is vast. All too soon, Kara and her new companions find themselves bound up in events that will determine the fate of all life in the universe.





	1. Kara

The glorious feeling of freedom, the spiraling grace of nature's beauty and the smell of clean mountain air. Kara Tao Vanden absorbed them all as she raced through the long wild grass of the valley above her home.

Kara was barely more than a girl of seventeen years. Her shining green eyes and youthful smile blazed in a somewhat round face with a slightly upturned nose that she was truly sick of having called "cute". Her sun-colored hair was pulled back in its usual high ponytail, leaving only a few rebellious strands free to wave just above her eyes in the breeze of her passage.

This fine afternoon was to be _hers._ No more chores; the harvests were all in and the crops stored against a winter that this unusually clear and warm autumn afternoon seemed to deny was coming. Her father, Sten, was mending some equipment, and her mother, Mairi, was finishing up the winter storing. They'd told her quite firmly to get out from underfoot and enjoy herself after their weeks of labor.

Kara's family lived and worked a small farm in the valley north of the village of Highrock. The farm was remote enough that Kara had rarely met anyone not in her own family. In all her life, she had been to the village only a handful of times. They had enough food to sustain themselves, and the town was far enough in their battered old cart to make trips for the few supplies they needed a long and rather unpleasant prospect.

Life on the farm was hard, but not unduly so. Her family eked out a comfortable life. They worked in the daytime: Kara in the fields with her mother and father, or tending the bovines as they were let out to graze every few days.

She didn't mind the hard work of tending the fields, but she preferred watching over the animals. She could rest against a tree, the sun on her face, or practice engaging mock opponents with the staff her mother had taught her to use as a weapon. There weren't many predators about the area, but it wasn't uncommon for a hungry lupus or two to venture up from the valleys below. An old blaster rifle hung over their fireplace at home, but her mother insisted that Kara be able to defend herself without resorting to firearms.

In the evenings they would gather, just the three of them, around the hearth, and Sing. The songs were special, not just because of the family bonds, nor the comforting aura of home, but because they had the Music.

Not everyone could hear the Music, Kara's mother had told her from infancy. Her father couldn't unless the three of them Sang together. Then he could hear the special Music that came from all the life around them, his own rough bass voice along with his wife and daughter's.

Kara could hear the Music. Her mother said it made her special. She told her, too, that it was important to not tell anyone. Not a living soul. Because the Music was rare, and some people wouldn't like that Kara could hear it and they could not.

And sometimes, she would hear about her grandmother. Her grandmother, who Kara had never known, who first came to this valley to hide from those who wanted her Music for themselves.

Kara listened to the Music now as she pelted through the grassy valley, towards a very precipitous drop. She seemed uncaring that in a few short yards, the ground would stop and she would fall.

Indeed, she did not slow as she drew near, she launched herself bodily from the cliff and felt the wind kiss her face even as her feet left the land for the sky.

In a sudden flurry of soft white down, Kara was neatly astride the back of a great bird-like creature, a gliderwing.

The Music changed as she knew it would, and a new singer added a growling, frustrated note. A melody that might have been, 'Children... This one will be the death of me,' had it been said aloud.

Kara merely laughed and rubbed her cheek affectionately into the feathers of her friend as he swam, effortless as a fish in water, through the cold blue currents of the mountain sky.

Gliderwings were semi-sentient native creatures that nested higher in the mountains than any human could comfortably go, but often they could be found in the verdant grassy valleys lower down, sunning themselves and enjoying the warmth.

It had disturbed Mairi somewhat when her daughter had reported to her that she could hear Music from the gliderwings, and that she could answer the avian beings the same way. That said, however, it soon became clear that the local gliderwing population considered Kara one of their flock and that they would allow no harm to come to her.

High over the grasslands they soared, merged as though of one mind. They dove and wheeled, reveling in the shared sense of freedom, the ultimate expression of joy.

Finally, the setting sun touched the highest peak and the valley descended into the cool purples of evening. With regret, the last bit of brilliant white dropped to the firm ground and Kara reluctantly slid off her friend's back. She stroked his muzzle with affection and deep in his chest he rumbled contentedly.

The Music thrummed within her, asking if she would return tomorrow.

She Sang back her affirmation. And with one look over her shoulder as the gliderwing launched himself into the sky, Kara jogged home.

***

In the void of local space, a long slender blade of warship slid through the blackness, its dagger-like profile aimed directly for the world beneath it.

The ship's Captain was well past middle-aged. Thirty years he had served in the navy of his Master; thirty years he had fought in one war or another, as his Lord bade.

"Captain," a junior nav officer said. "Sir, you wanted to know when we were in position."

"Yes," the older man waved this aside. "Thank you." He indicated his executive officer. "Naris, the bridge is yours. I am going to report to His Lordship." He didn't even see the salute Naris made as he turned and departed the bridge.

Striding briskly, the Captain went directly to a turbolift and descended three levels. A hundred yards down the corridor, two elite troopers stood at attention. They glared frostily at the Captain as he approached. They were His Lordship's men, his own personal guard.

Malak had not bothered with such trappings. Surely, Revan had not. How the great Sith had fallen. He was still loyal to the Dark Lord of the Sith, even if he had little enough respect for the man who currently held the title. "Captain Hyridan to see Lord Venaar, at _his_ request," he addressed the two. The door slid open onto a brightly lit chamber filled floor to ceiling with books.

At a desk in the center of the room sat Kirennan Venaar, the current Dark Lord of the Sith. "Ah, Captain Hyridan, come in. I take it we are finally ready?"

Snapping to strictest attention, Hyridan saluted. "Sir! We stand prepared, My Lord. What are your orders?"

Venaar was a tall, graceful man. His dark hair framed a smooth, chiseled face that was so handsome the word beautiful was far more appropriate. His robes were ornate, worked with gold and jewels. His strong hands were as accustomed to a lightsaber or the controls of a fighter as they were his collection of ancient writings. His right hand rested on a page of the book before him now, caressing it reverently.

"Today... today will be remembered as the day it all began," he whispered. "I promise you that, my Master." His eyes closed and his fine lips flattened into a thin line, but only for a moment. "I sense you disapprove of this action, Captain."

"It is not my place to approve or disapprove, My Lord, only to serve you."

Venaar laughed. "Well said, but I do not want droids for officers, Captain. I value your judgment. In private, you may speak your mind."

Venaar's tolerance further lessened Hyridan's respect. That said, he followed his Lord's command. "I do not understand the significance of this world," Hyridan said simply. "The fleet is spread so thin we cannot even effectively blockade the world for another three days and yet you want us to strike now. I know you must have a reason. It is simply not clear to me, My Lord."

"You are a military man, Captain. You deal in facts and figures. Armies and opposing forces. What you can see and touch. What we hunt down there are not rebels, nor enemies. What we look for on this world is information."

"Information, My Lord?"

"Yes, Captain. This world holds a secret treasure, of a sort. When we have it, we will hold the galaxy by its throat."

Unsure about any of this, Hyridan nodded. "As you say, My Lord."

"Launch the landing parties, Captain. Bring me what I seek."

The older man snapped another salute. "As you command, My Lord."

***

The sun shone bright through the curtains of Kara's window. She pulled the pillow over her head to block it out but then a pounding on her door woke her beyond all recovery.

"Kara!" Her mother called. "Get up, you need to eat quickly and help us load the wagon."

Sitting up in bed, Kara called back through the door. "Wagon? Are we going to town?"

"Yes, hurry up." Her mother headed towards the kitchen.

 _Damn,_ she thought. Going to town meant at least two days away from the farm and the flock. Two days in a jouncing wooden cart pulled along by a dour old beast that couldn't be hurried if you lit his withers on fire.

Dressing sullenly, Kara dragged herself through the house to the kitchen and slumped into her place at the table.

"Now," her father said, glowering across at her expression, "what's all the huff for?"

"I don't want to go into town," Kara admitted. "I know we need to, and I'll go, I just don't have to like it."

The sun-darkened skin of her father's face split in a wide grin. "Now who told you that you _had_ to go? I just need you to help me load up the wagon in the first place, and after that I don't care what you do."

Her face lit up. "Really?"

He nodded. "Really. You're a big girl now. It's time we admitted it."

She lunged across the table and threw her arms around him. "Thank you!" she cried.

"Here now!" her mother chided. "You spill over my table and get my eggs all over the floor, and then you'll spend the day cleaning in here instead of romping about on the back of that great beast!"

Loading the cart was several hours of heavy lifting, but finally they got all the barrels and assorted bales tucked into the rickety old thing. Her father rested against the side, breathing hard. "Figures, you and I are done and Mairi is still in there getting ready."

"Don't mock mother," Kara said, imitating her almost perfectly. "It's not her fault you're in such a rush." Then she laughed. "Besides, she's probably in there cooking for you two _and_ me, so I don't burn down the house while you're gone."

"How did you know?" her mother asked sarcastically, emerging from the house with a large wrapped bundle. "I put some food away for you down in the cellar. Just warm the stew over a fire." Then she imitated Kara. "And try not to burn down the _entire_ house while you're at it?"

"Just the kitchen," Kara promised, hugging her mother.

Her father, already on the wagon's bench, reached a hand down to help her mother up. "Now, you be good," he admonished.

She promised and her father twitched the reins. The plodding bovine hitched to the wagon grunted, and they slowly rolled towards the gate.

***

An hour later, Kara walked serenely up the valley towards where the flock nested. She paused on the path for what must be the tenth time and looked back down towards her home. She couldn't see it from here, but she still could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She began to fret that maybe she should return when she saw a brilliant streak, high up in the sky. Shading her eyes with one hand, Kara peered up into the blue and saw a silvery gleam that she couldn't identify. She'd never seen anything like it. It certainly wasn't a bird.

It had to be a ship. She'd heard of the metal vehicles that flew between stars, of course. She may have led a sheltered life, but her parents made sure she was at least educated about the wider world. As to what it wanted here, she had no idea. Never in her life had Kara actually seen one.

Suddenly, the feeling of dread within her crystallized. At the same time, she felt the swell of urgency reflected in the Music as a thunder of wings beat the air towards her.

Before she had time to protest, several gliderwings had landed around her. They butted at her legs with their soft heads until she had slipped astride the largest of them, the one she had ridden yesterday, then they all leapt into the air.

She tried to learn why they were so strangely insistent but all they would Sing back to her was incoherent. 'Away! Escape! Fear! Egg-smashers!'

They flew far that day, farther away from the farm than Kara had ever been. The wind whipped fiercely at her face, which she buried within her arms, trying to make herself small against the gliderwing's back. She knew she had to return; whatever was wrong screamed in her mind that she had to get back to the farm, to her parents, but she couldn't make her abductors understand.

At long last, she finally managed to break through the incoherent chorus of their fear. She managed to tell the gliderwing she rode that she couldn't run away like this. He Sang back his regret, but that he could not let harm come to his fledgling.

As the sun shrank away, the cold became too much for Kara. She felt herself numbing. Tears that had stung her face before were freezing there now. The flock consulted and wheeled, circling slowly to land near a mountain cave.

Inside, they made a wall of their own bodies and wings to warm her against the chill. She was too weak to fight anymore, and as she was covered by the protective wall of her friends, she fell into a fitful sleep.

Her dreams were disturbed by the experiences of the day. She saw her parents wave from the wagon as it trundled off into the sky. She saw the flock high in the air suddenly burst into flame, and she saw... someone. The most handsome man she had ever seen. She had never glimpsed his face before, but she was drawn to it. She felt a connection there, something she couldn't understand. Even as her soul drew her to this man, her heart warned her to flee from him.

When she finally woke, her body was stiff from the flight and her rocky bed, but at least she wasn't chilled to the core anymore. The feeling of immediate panic and wrongness of the previous day was gone, but in its place, a knot of cold dread lay twisting within her.

The flock stirred as she did. After some tricky footwork, they let her out of the cave. As she stumbled into the sunshine, she realized she had no idea where she was. She knew she was high in the mountains, but she was unsure even of which direction to take.

"Great," she muttered aloud. She would have to convince them to take her back. It was the only way.

She found the head of the flock gazing steadily down at her from a perch near the cave entrance. He hopped down to the ground as she called to him and she stroked a hand through the feathers at the crown of his head. She knew he'd always liked that.

She begged, she pleaded with him to take her home.

In the Music, he sighed. He'd seen her resolve, but only sadness would await her there, he Sang.

"I know," she said aloud. How she knew, even she could not say. 'I have to return to my family. I have to see,' she Sang back to him.

'Then,' he Sang with all gravity, 'I shall carry you.' Stooping low, he allowed her to scramble onto his back.

The rest of the flock remained at the cave. Just Kara and her friend made this trip back to their meadow. Despite her turmoil, they did not hurry as they soared through the morning. They rode high on the thermal currents of the sky, Kara keeping a sharp eye for any sign of change in the landscape beneath them.

The gliderwing was the first to spot the smoke. A greasy trail of blackness against the sky.

It rose from the farm. The house and the barn were both burned to the ground, the few animals they kept slaughtered and left for scavengers.

Her companion Sang a question to her, wanting to know if they should land.

Kara wept for her home, but she knew it was not the worst she'd find today. 'No, follow the road. Find my parents.'

Gliderwings did not often approach the village. They feared human hunters who did not understand their Singing. But for the spirit-wounded young human Singer on his back, this gliderwing would go through fire. He bowed his head and they went on.

Halfway down the track to the village they saw it: the charred remains of the wagon.

'Child,' the gliderwing Sang sadly.

'Land!' She shouted back, ready to leap from his back if he would not.

Circling twice, the great beast landed and Kara leapt lightly to the ground, pelting towards the ruined thing, hoping against hope that she would not see them. The bovine lay dead and half-burned at the head of the overturned wagon. She could see no sign of her parents in the wreckage. Allowing herself a small hope, she began to circle the scene, calling out their names.

The words died within her. They were there, pinned to the other side of the cart by strange metal bands. They had burned with the wagon, their bones blackened.

Kara stood transfixed by the sight, the sheer horror of it washing over her in waves of anguish, anger, and sorrow. She collapsed to the ground and howled her loss to the heavens.

***

The gliderwing brought her to the outskirts of the farm. He'd agreed to help Kara bury her parents by returning them to her home.

She took their bodies, one at a time, to the rough hewn graves she'd dug for each of them. They were on a little rise facing south, so they could see the glorious sunrises and sunsets that her mother had always loved.

When it was done, and marker stones were placed at each grave, Kara sat between them. The labor had taken most of the day. The sun was now dropping towards the eastern sky and dark clouds gathered to the west, against the mountains. Rain was coming. She'd need shelter. Beside her, the gliderwing stirred. It gently butted its head against her shoulders and back, giving what comfort it could.

Finally, she dragged herself to her feet. She wrapped her arms around the gliderwing's head and buried her face against its cheek. She cried anew, but somehow, she felt the pain changing; not lessening any, but changing from a sharp jab to a dull ache.

Gliderwings' heavy down was meant to keep the cold of snow out of their bodies, but it would absorb rain like a sponge. If he stayed with her, it would mean he couldn't fly until it dried out sufficiently, and that could take days by the look of the storm clouds. Regretfully, she looked around and found no shelter sufficient for her friend.

Kara laid a hand on his beak. "Return to the others," she said aloud, her voice creaking. 'I will be fine for the night,' she Sang as well.

Clearly torn, the gliderwing hesitated.

'Go,' she told him insistently.

Draping his neck over her shoulder one last time, the gliderwing launched himself into the sky, circling overhead and finally flying off to rejoin the flock.

The house itself was burned beyond use, its roof having fallen in, and the barn was totally gone, but the cellar still seemed sound. Climbing in through a small opening the fire had left, Kara found a clean, dry place among the sacks of vegetables from the harvest, and collapsed there.

***

Kara woke the next day, sat up and rubbed at her eyes. The basement room reeked of smoke, the smell stabbing through her and reviving her anger.

Her parents were dead, and her home lay in ruins. What was there for her now?

The anger grew. It blossomed from blazing heat to cold, certain hatred. The frozen gem within her pulsed and fed on her hate, on the pure, unadulterated power of her fury at the death of her family, at the abrupt end of what had been her happy life here in the mountains, all gone now.

Ah, said the gem, but there is always revenge, isn't there?

Yes, she could find those who did this. She could make them pay. She would track them, she would find them and when she did, their screams would pave the way to her future.

Yes, exulted the gem of cold fire within her, they could not merely die for their transgressions. No, their pain must dwarf Kara's own. The agony of their end would be spoken of with fearful shudders for generations to come.

She stood on the brink of the gem within her, gazing down into the infinite blackness of its crystalline depths. Its beguiling words lulled her senses; the siren call of its power whispered to her. Yet, she paused. For she was only a farmer from Highrock, a young girl against whatever forces had razed her family's holding to the ground.

She clenched her fists angrily at her sides. What could she do against such a power as that?

With an agonized scream, she slammed a fist into the stone wall behind her. The gem within her gave a titanic thrum of power at the pain and it all fell away from her, leaving Kara an empty, vacant husk of herself.

She fell back to her knees, leaning her head against the wall she had just struck. A puddle of rain water from above began to sift down through the ash and char above her. A few black rivulets pooled about her, washed from her face only by her own fresh tears.

She was called back to herself by a glimmer of red light from across the room.

The light spilled from a small gap in the stone. She made her way to it and tugged at the crack, a chunk of the basement wall falling away in her hand.

Inside the small hole in the wall, a red crystal pyramid the size of Kara's fist pulsed with light. As she took it from its hiding place, the pyramid's light increased and coalesced into an image projected in the air above its peak.

The image was of a woman. She had proud features and wore robes of deepest night. Kara recognized some of her mother's features in the woman's face, though it was clearly not her.

The image spoke. "It was my greatest hope that this holocron would never again be found, or used. But it seems that my will has been thwarted. Know that only one of my line can activate this device, and that means I welcome you, though I wish this had not happened."

Kara blinked at the image. Who was this woman? One of her line?

"My name is Selene Au Vanden, though most know me as Selene Bladedancer. I served under Revan in the Mandalorian Wars as a young Jedi. I was witness to Revan's fall, and followed her into the ways of darkness, but that tale is for another time.

"As you accept your inheritance from me, take also my weapon. May my lightsaber serve you well. Use it to guard this holocron with your life. Many will search for it. None should be allowed to use it, not ever again. It was my hope that it could remain hidden on Derra IV, but fate, it seems, will not allow that to happen. Guard it well, my kin, or all will suffer from my knowledge."

The image faded. Kara set the crystal down and found several other items behind the small hole. One was a metal cylinder, about half a meter in length. She saw what looked like activation studs at either end. When she cautiously touched them, one-meter-long blades of crimson light erupted from the ends of the grip. This must be the lightsaber Selene had mentioned. She also found what looked like a bandolier in the hole, which included a clip that would conceal the hilt behind her back.

Closing down the blades, she also took out a small pouch. It held seven small, clear crystals and a few coins.

With the same dread certainty that had guided her back to the farm, Kara knew that this holocron thing was what the murderers were after. She knew she had to keep this safe. Even if it was the only vengeance she could wreak upon those who'd slain her family, she would see it done.

She tied the pouch to her belt and put on the bandolier. The lightsaber felt right as it clipped into place, easy to reach but concealed beneath her short cloak.

With new conviction, Kara rose and made her way out to the sunshine. She paused upon seeing her parents' gravestones. She knew she had to go, but she would never forget this place that had been her home. She would never forget those who raised her, whom she had loved. She would never forget what had been her entire life.

Deciding to venture to the village, she thought she might find a ride to the only spaceport she knew of on the world, the city of Othani. She was making plans from there when she felt a trill of Music and her friend dropped from the sky before her. He gleamed in the morning sun and his eyes sought an answer of her. 'Where are you going?'

'I am leaving,' she Sang to him. 'I go to hunt those who harmed me.'

'I will accompany you,' he declared. 'Together we shall....'

'No! Where I go, you cannot follow.' Kara could feel the conflict ripple from her friend as he tried to reconcile the desires within him. 'Stay,' she told him. 'Protect the flock and grow strong. I will return when I am done.'

Drawing near her, the gliderwing again draped his head over her shoulder. 'My brave featherless fledgling,' he Sang. 'Go with our good will and go with my love.'

Tears stung her eyes once more, but she banished them. Reaching up, she embraced her friend, swearing to herself it would not be the final time. Then she stepped back from him and continued on her way.

The gliderwing remained there, watching her go until he could no longer see her, nor hear her Song in the Music. Finally, after she was gone from him and his flock, he threw his head back and sounded a roar: a comfort to her flock, her family... a warning to her enemies.


	2. Renn

The hordes of strangely dressed people and bewildering sounds and smells assaulted Kara's senses in waves of chaotic interference.

She'd never seen so many people in one place before, nor been in a city the size of Othani. The stench of near-panic filled her as she watched the ebb and flow of traffic about the spaceport district. Her first step would have to be getting passage. She frowned down at her all-too-light purse. Maybe she could strike some deal with a ship captain, supplement her meager funds with the willingness to work.

Finally, she let the crush of traffic carry her along until she stumbled into a small cantina. From the array of species and clothing about her, she thought this bar must be frequented mostly by off-worlders. A good place to start looking.

Kara made her way to the bar and signaled the barkeep. She ordered a non-intoxicating drink and asked, "Do you know of any ship willing to take on passengers?"

The barkeep scratched at his considerable chin. "Lotta people want off this rock just now, Miss," he said. "But I think I know a few folks in need of some quick credits. Try that guy over in the corner." He motioned to a small table towards the back. It was occupied by one human male, apparently nursing a drink of his own. "Poor Renn's luck ain't been what it used to," the barman added conspiratorially.

The man looked young, maybe in his early twenties. He had short dark hair and dark eyes, and a scruff of stubble that looked like he hadn't shaved in a few days, at least. He was kind of cute, but he looked shifty. Anyone trying that hard to be nondescript was up to no good. He was watching the crowd warily, paying no attention to the drink in front of him.

Maybe she should look elsewhere.... Then again, if the barkeep was right and he was her best chance, she would have to try it.

Kara nodded. "Thanks." She paid for her drink and melted back into the crowd.

***

Aeron Rhade did not get out much.

As a young Jedi Padawan, Aeron was an unusual case. He was a soul quite content to remain at the temple with his books and his research, surrounded by the wisdom of the Council of Masters.

Truth be told, Aeron knew he was not the best the Jedi had to offer. While his knowledge of Jedi lore and the teachings of the Force was indeed formidable, his ability to feel it was stunted. He often described it to his Master, the great Valen Kell, as being a man dying of thirst, and standing in a dry riverbed. Before him sits a massive boulder, blocking the flow of that river, so that only the barest, tiny trickle reached him.

This great stone, this block... it would drive him mad if he let it. Aeron knew the deeper understanding of the Force he so longed for was just on the other side... but the harder he tried to shift the block, the more obstinate it became.

Despite being trained by the illustrious Grand Master of the Jedi himself, Aeron was still a lowly Padawan, even into his early twenties.... Still a learner, and always a disappointment to his beloved Master.

Which is why, in fact, he had left the Academy Temple perhaps just a handful of times in his life, and even then, only to nearby destinations, and known places.

But Derra IV was neither. Far from his home, far from his books and the wisdom of the Council.... Despite this, he was grateful to be here, and eager to prove himself. For despite being so starved of the Force, the bare trickle he could feel had brought him a sign, and at last his Jedi Trials were before him.

Once again, echoes of the vision he'd had at the Academy temple flashed in his mind's eye. A shadowy figure, a girl, fighting with a dual-bladed lightsaber that split in twain. The figure was locked in ultimate struggle with a man... a man wreathed in darkness and... and something else. Something worse than darkness. Immediately upon surfacing from this haunting vision, Aeron had poured through texts and records, seeking some small clue as to the meaning behind it. He had finally found it in, of all things, a combat training treatise penned by the great Bladedancer herself, Selene Au Vanden. It could not have been her in the vision – the girl was too young – but it was a place to start.

He’d brought what he’d seen and learned to his Master, and then to the greater Council itself. From the Council, Aeron learned that the last known sighting of Selene had been on the remote world of Derra IV.

And so, Aeron and his long-suffering Master, Valen Kell, had come to this small world on the edge of the map, following the vision to its source. It was his task, his trial. Solve the vision, and be a Padawan no longer, become the Knight his Master had always seen in him.

After a few false starts in a rural village or two, they had come to the denser spaceport city of Othani, and many of Aeron's assumptions about the world had come under siege.

In a crowded marketplace, some diversion had caught the young man's fancy, and he suddenly looked up to realize that he and Master Kell had become separated.

"Master?" he called. "Master Kell? Now where did he...?"

Aeron caught sight of the man coming through the crowd, though it took a moment to recognize him. Before landing on the supposedly quiet world, his Master had changed into plain traveling clothes, forgoing the bright white Jedi robes he favored, and covering his nose, mouth and throat with a long, dark scarf. The scarf hid the wreckage that had been made of Master Kell's neck and jaw, irreparable damage from the wars of three decades hence.

"Ah, Master! I thought I'd lost you in the crowd," Aeron exclaimed gladly. "The library briefing said Derra IV was supposed to be a calm, pastoral world...."

"Only outside the few spaceport towns," his Master said. As always, the sound of his voice was harsh, as he forced the words through his scarred and roughened vocal chords by sheer willpower. It sounded very alien from his otherwise human features. "And remember, a Sith battlewagon made orbit just after our ship landed. That would make any populace more... agitated."

"I don't believe the Sith would invade Republic space!" Aeron said, still aghast at the situation. "When we return to the Temple...."

"My young Padawan," Master Kell hissed for Aeron's ears alone. "We have far more to fear from the Sith than anyone else here. Please, _try_ not to broadcast the fact that we are Jedi?"

Kell was disappointed in him, again. Aeron could hear it in his Master's voice. It was a familiar state, indeed. "Yes, Master," he said low, and ashamed. "I'll do better."

"See that you do," Kell snapped. "Our mission is too important to allow a loose tongue to end it."

Aeron nodded. "Still, I wonder what could have drawn the Sith way out here to a planet like this? We're a long way from any of their systems. Even if this world _is_ remote, they can't believe it will be undefended."

"Given your vision, they are probably after the same thing we are."

"Bladedancer's kin?"

"Indeed. The weapon you describe... could belong to no other, but the person wielding it was not her." Kell shook his head firmly. "She died, long ago. In any event, go now. Finding her kin is your task. I must pursue my own."

Aeron nodded. "As you say, Master. May the...." Then he remembered and bit off the familiar parting phrase. "Good luck?" he tried hopefully.

Valen Kell rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Better, young one. Better...."

***

News of the forming Sith blockade spread quickly through the little spaceport of Othani, and had drawn its inhabitants, both temporary spacers and permanent residents, toward the spaceport's many cantinas to trade news and information.

In many ways, it made it easier to meet a contact about some not-so-legal goods, thought Renn Falani as he watched the stream of people pass by the small corner table at which he'd parked himself. His plain dark hair and dark eyes did not stand out, and his clothes were perfectly nondescript, chosen to keep him pleasantly anonymous among the crowd of spacers and other folk jamming into the bar's small confines. He had a small drink sitting in front of him, which he hadn't touched past the initial sip: an excuse to linger here. No one seemed to take note of him, beyond a friendly nod. That was just how he liked things. It made it easier to do his job.

It didn't hurt either that everyone not native to this backwater was looking to get off-planet before the Sith blockade became some more permanent mess. Every spacer here wanted cargo, legal or otherwise, before they wound up grounded. He'd never seen the place this crazy in all the times they'd come here; it had become a regular stop for them over the years, transporting supplies back and forth from various planets in the sector. But the ship was empty right now, and an empty ship made no credits. Would make no credits either, unless his contact showed up. With everyone else grasping for cargo too, this was their best bet to make a profit.

He scanned the crowd again. Renn didn't know the name of the man he was here to meet; he had only a description of a human male with blond hair and a load of slightly illegal cargo.

A young woman with blond hair came through the crowd direct to his table. "Excuse me, are you Renn?"

Not his contact. Damn. But she was wearing clothes in the native style, he noted, and she seemed agitated. "I might be," he said cautiously. "Depends who you are."

"My name is Kara Tao Vanden." she said. "The bartender said you have a ship, one that might be willing to take on a passenger?" She moved her cloak aside a bit to show her money pouch.

Renn stifled a snort at her attempt to impress him. He was going to miss his real contact if this kid didn't get lost, and fast. "The bartender told you wrong. We're a cargo ship, not a passenger liner."

"I can't afford a liner," she admitted. "Look, I know I don't have much, but I'm also willing to do any work you'd ask of me during the trip. It's vital I get off Derra IV."

"Oh, it's _vital._ Why didn't you say so?" He couldn't keep his amusement out of his voice. "Girl, every other being in this cantina thinks it's vital that they get off-world too. We don't need more workers. We need profitable cargo, which you're not, and we're not leaving until we can get some." Over the girl's head, a blond human man caught his eye, mouth turned down in a frown. Finally.

Renn looked back down at the girl's face only to find her eyes wet with the threat of tears. His jaw clenched. He hated the crying trick. "Look, talk to me again later. We might be able to take you once our hold's full."

She nodded and moved off, taking a spot a few tables away. Renn's contact approached and slipped into a chair across from him. "Down to business, and fast," he began. "I want this stuff off-world before the Sith decide to start searching warehouses...."

***

Across the bar, someone else noted the rejected look on the young girl's face. He also noted who she'd been talking to, and who was talking to him now.

This man was there specifically to note such things. He also took note of the people around them who were obviously armed, and those who were not, as well as those who might have something nasty tucked away in a private pocket.

His target was here, and was trying to flee the planet. This much was now confirmed. They'd spooked her and now she wanted to escape them.

He was just reaching surreptitiously for his comlink when someone else entered the cantina. This newcomer was trying not to be noticed. In fact he was trying so hard that the only thing he had not done was carry in a lit sign reading, 'I am up to no good.'

The man watched the newcomer head for the bar and argue with the barkeep about the price and availability of some impossibly expensive drink, then turn to survey the crowd.

All right, the man thought, let's add the dandy to our detainee list. He thumbed the squelch button of his comlink twice and then almost subvocally whispered, "Target in sight. Location blue delta 4. Move in."

***

Renn reached across the table and took a thin card from the other man who had joined him at his table. His contact, who'd called himself 'Thes,' nodded toward it. "That keycard'll get you into the warehouse where the cargo is stored. I want to avoid attention, so load it fast."

"And our payment?"

"As soon as the cargo's loaded, I'll transfer the first 2,000 credits. You'll get the rest when you get it safely to Boss Qui on Ord Mantell."

"Agreed. Pleasure doing business with you," the smuggler said, pocketing the keycard.

Suddenly, light poured through the grimy windows. Armor-clad troopers pushed their way in through the front doors and boiled in from the supply room. Someone wearing a lieutenant's armor brought an amplifier to his faceplate. "No one move, this entire establishment is under interdiction! Remain seated with your hands in plain view while we conduct our search!" he barked. The troopers began sifting through the crowd towards the corner where Renn sat.

Renn casually brushed his comlink to turn it on, then he drew his hand out of his pocket and brought it to rest on the table. He risked a glance toward the Sith. They were still coming toward him.

His eyes snapped toward the man across the table, but Thes was looking back at him with an equally suspicious expression. There was a note of panic in the way he was fidgeting that said clearly he didn't want to be caught by the Sith anymore than Renn did. Did someone else sell them out to the Sith? Was it the girl?

Just feet from his table, the Sith troopers veered to the right and surrounded the table the girl had taken when Renn shooed her away.

"You!" one of them commanded. "You are coming with us"

The girl glared up at the trooper, her eyes shading from surprise to fright to outright hatred. She sneered up at the man, then around at the troopers who flanked her, weapons ready. It was a pitiful sight, really: one slim, unarmed girl surrounded by seven Sith troopers with rifles leveled at her.

Renn had mentally crossed her off the betrayal list when one of the troopers detached from the ring around her and brought a rifle to bear on him instead. "She was talking with this one. We'll bring him in, too."

"Hey, I didn't-" he began, but fell silent as the Sith trooper took another step closer.

Then a new voice reverberated across the cantina. "Hold, foul curs!" it shouted, accompanied by the snap-hiss of a lightsaber.

If they didn't have men at the door, Renn might have tried to run for it amid the little distraction. But there were, so he remained seated. He looked up, saw the trooper who was supposed to be watching him had turned to stare at the man with the lightsaber. Renn snorted. If that was a Jedi, he was an idiot to just announce himself like that. If he wasn't... well, he was still an idiot, and he was probably going to get himself killed for nothing.

Renn watched the trooper and inched his fingers toward the still-full glass in front of him. If he was going to have any chance at all to get out of this, he was going to have to be creative.

He grabbed the drink and threw it at the table next to them, then ducked.

The glass connected with the back of an angry Trandoshan's head. The hulking reptilian alien whipped a blaster out of a forearm holster and, not bothering to aim, simply opened fire in Renn's general direction.

About the time that the Sith troopers had finally adjusted to the presence of a Jedi and opened fire on the man at the bar, the entire Cantina dissolved into general chaos.

Renn slid under the table, though not before he saw Thes fall back in a heap, struck by a bolt from the Trandoshan's weapon. Bastard hadn't even paid them yet. Renn swore to himself and grabbed for the comlink in his pocket. "Now would be nice," he managed to get out. Another blaster bolt struck a few feet from where he crouched. He pulled his own weapon, then upended the table for more cover.

He glanced at his fallen contact again, then turned him over and slipped the man's blaster out of its holster. He wouldn't be needing it anymore, and Renn thought he could use all the extra firepower he could get.

***

Kara sat transfixed by the shimmering blue blade and the man who wielded it. It was like the weapon she'd found at the farm, the weapon she kept concealed in her cloak.

The people around the man seemed to fall back, most whispering the word "Jedi" like it was a myth made real before their eyes.

The armored men around her stared at the newcomer as well. Their attention off her for a moment, Kara decided to risk it all. She lunged backwards, her chair toppling and spilling her beyond the ring of men. At the same time she felt at the small of her back for the weapon she'd hidden there.

The crimson red blades extended from either end of the hilt and she crouched low into her center of balance, the same way she'd done for countless hours with her mother in the fields.

The soldiers stood dumbfounded, their posture slack with shock at the unexpected sight.

Her heart pumping, the Music Sang in her mind. The faintest hint of a smile graced her lips and she made a downright rude gesture at them.

The one of them who'd spoken snapped out of his reverie first. "Open fire," he barked and the rifles sang their deadly counterpoint.

But the Music had Kara now. In its embrace, she spun and danced through the blaster fire like it was a warm breeze, letting it bend away from her and her blade and passing through it with no damage at all.

The troopers weren't so lucky. They fell like wheat before her crimson scythe. Either the flashing blades or the blasters of the cantina's patrons ate into the Sith troopers and they fell one by one.

***

For a moment, Renn, too, was transfixed by the girl with the lightsaber. That had been about the last thing he'd expected. Explained why she wanted off this rock so badly. Seeing a pair of troopers coming up behind her, he opened fire with his blasters from behind the cover of his overturned table, taking them out before they could jump her.

At this point, he had to assume no rescue was coming. He edged toward the nearest door, taking potshots at the troopers, hoping he'd be able to get out without drawing too much notice.

A fresh barrage of laser fire from the doorway seared past him. For one terrible moment, Renn thought it was Sith reinforcements, but the blaster bolts struck home and Sith troopers fell on all sides of the cantina.

A female humanoid with sleek tawny fur stepped in over the bodies of the Sith who had been guarding the entrance. She held a blaster pistol in each hand, and continued shooting. Her eyes glanced over the tableau of the room, but she didn't seem to react to anything. Renn smiled grimly. He knew that look. "Right on time, Captain," he muttered.

Her cat-like ears twitched toward him, and she fired in his direction. He ducked back behind the table, only to be joined a moment later by the smoking body of a Sith trooper. She had to enjoy doing that to him. Renn saw his opportunity and ducked his head, running to her side.

"How do you always get yourself into these predicaments, Renn?" She didn't look at him. Instead, she continued to scan the room for targets. Between her blasters, his own, and the pair of lightsabers, the Sith troopers lay dead or dying across the room, and most of the locals had scattered.

Renn made a face at her. "That was cutting it a little too close, Liana."

Her tail flicked gently, but she made no other comment. He hated when she did that.

***

Closing down her weapon, Kara felt all strength leave her. Even the exotic feline alien didn't register through the exhaustion. She stood panting and could only muster a weak look as she heard the man with the blue blade exclaim in shock, "A red lightsaber? That means you're a Sith!" He seemed so shocked by this that he didn't even notice the trooper behind him who'd only been wounded. The soldier was struggling to raise a hold-out pistol.

Kara tried to reignite her weapon but the man was suddenly between her and the trooper, glaring at her in indignation.

The trooper fired before Kara could move. Blue energy crackled along the man's body for a moment. Then his eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped against her.

Both Renn and the cat-like alien fired on the trooper, who didn't twitch after that.

"What the bloody hell is a Sith?!" Kara exclaimed, trying to shift the unconscious person's bulk from her and into a chair, without dropping him to the ground.

"That is what these troopers call themselves," the feline alien said, coming over to help Kara shift her burden into one of the few unbroken chairs. "I am Liana. I believe we should all leave this place before more arrive."

"Captain," Renn interjected, his tone urgent, "our contact's dead. We need to get the hell off this rock, now."

Her head snapped up. "Did you get the information?"

"Got the key to the warehouse, but we're not getting paid." Renn moved to the doorway to watch for reinforcements.

Liana's tail twitched again.

"My name is Kara Tao Vanden. I can pay if you'll take me off-world," Kara said.

"I told you, we don't have room-" Renn began, but Liana held up a hand. The man fell silent, although the dark look on his face spoke volumes about his opinion of matters.

"I cannot guarantee you will be any safer with us, but you handled yourself well in the fight, Jedi. We will take you with us."

Kara's brow drew down in confusion. People kept calling her strange things today. Off-world slang maybe? She dug into her pouch and produced one of the crystals hidden therein. It sparkled as she showed it to Liana. "If this will not pay for transit, I am willing to work as well."

Ears flicking forward, Liana took the crystal and peered at it. Renn stared. "This is worth more than the cost of passage," she said finally, ignoring Renn's noise of protest. "Though we would appreciate if you will aid us in loading our cargo before we launch. Renn is right, we need to hurry."

Smiling with relief, Kara draped the unconscious man over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. "If there's room and enough change from that trinket, this lump comes too. I need information he has. I don't think there's time to get it here."

"Captain," Renn tried again, "that self-righteous idiot almost got us killed. I don't like the idea of him roaming our ship, especially not armed."

Liana considered. "Very well, but I will take custody of his weapon until I see if he can be trusted." She held out a hand. Kara could see claws on the tips of her fingers. "Is that acceptable?"

"Works for me," Kara said, handing over the lightsaber. Before this morning, she'd never seen an alien; but the prudence and honesty Liana exuded made the farm girl trust her implicitly.

She made a note, however, to watch that Renn like a hawk.

***

The speeder Renn had found outside the cantina wasn't a great machine, but after a little careful persuading, it was now loaded with four heavy cargo crates from Thes's warehouse, and four passengers. Thankfully, the Jedi idiot was still knocked out. Renn had been objecting the whole way to the warehouse that they didn't have time to stop for the cargo, but Liana was being stubborn about it. Damn proud woman. She was going to get him killed one of these days, he was sure of it.

He drove the speeder straight into the hangar bay, barely coming to a stop before it hit the wall. "You should have let me drive," Liana said mildly, hopping out of the vehicle. She grabbed a crate even as the ship's ramp descended and ran up into the dark opening before Renn could retort.

He turned to grab a crate of his own and found the girl, Kara, staring up at the small cargo freighter he'd called home for the past five years. "She's called the Wanderer," he told her. "She's not much to look at, but she's solid."

"She's beautiful," Kara breathed.

Renn snorted. "Didn't get off the farm much, did ya, kid?" He thrust his crate into her hands and reached for another one.

She snorted in return, mostly due to the whomp of crate meeting chest. "Out of the way, spacer boy," she retorted and hefted the last crate as well. "We wait for you, we may as well put down roots." Turning sharply on her heel, Kara stalked up the ramp.

Sneering, Renn turned to consider their other passenger. It would be so easy to just leave him here....

"Don't even think it." Kara's voice came down the ramp.

If she could read his mind that casually, what else could she do?

He stalked up the ramp and stowed his crate in perfect silence, then secured the other two before sealing the secret compartment. Then he turned to to the girl and grabbed her arm, forcing her to look at him. "You want him, you go get him," he said coldly. "And if I think for a minute you're using Jedi mind tricks to influence either of us to do something, I'm kicking you off this ship, no matter what Liana says."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," she replied. "Now excuse me." She went back down and returned a moment later with the other man, still out cold.

"Where do I put him?" she asked.

"Back in the speeder," Renn muttered.

"Enough, Renn," Liana said as she came back into the hold. "We have a job to do."

"Yes, Captain." He pushed past the girl and her unconscious burden toward the cockpit, where he sank into the co-pilot's seat. Now all they had to do was get off-world before the Sith blockade had a chance to fully organize. No trouble. He reached for buttons with an air of long-practiced pre-flight routine.

No trouble at all.

***

"Thank you, Captain. I don't want to be a bother about this," Kara said, again hefting her bundle. She wondered idly when he was going to actually wake up.

"Come, bring him." Liana bared pointed teeth in something like a smile, and set off down the ship's corridor. "I'm afraid Renn and I have become accustomed to having the ship's crew quarters to ourselves," she said, pressing a button. The door slid open on a sparse room with three bunks, one on each side of the room and the third opposite the door. Only one of the bunks showed any signs of use, and that only by some clothes and assorted junk strewn around it — Renn's, by the look of them. Liana helped Kara ease the strange man down onto one of the unused bunks.

Doing a quick headcount, Kara patted the pristine third bunk. "I guess this one's mine, then?"

Liana tilted her head in mild amusement. "If you wish to sleep in the men's dormitory, you are welcome to, but I think you may be more comfortable in the other room."

"Other room?" Kara asked. "I thought you said... I don't mean to pry but, um, aren't you and Renn, you know, together?"

Liana's tail twitched back and forth with almost deliberate slowness, and Kara wished she knew enough about the alien's mannerisms to understand the gesture. "We are only friends and partners," Liana said finally, not quite keeping the laugh from her voice.

Kara blushed. "Oh. Sorry."

"I suppose I can see where you might think that." The Captain moved toward the door. "I can show you where you will be sleeping if you'd like. It's not far." Kara glanced nervously toward the man on the bed. Liana paused and followed her gaze. "Ah. I think he will be out for some time, but I can lock the door and set the droids to watch him if you're concerned about leaving him unsupervised."

"Droids?" she echoed. Embarrassed again, Kara realized that she'd never seen a mechanical being before. They hadn't needed one on the farm; it was just large enough for the three of them, after all. She knew what droids were, of course. She just didn't know how to react to them.

Liana seemed to misunderstand the girl's questioning. "We have two on board. They mostly assist with repairs and maintenance, although one of them does have some protocol programming for translation." She reached for her comm. "B4, could you come to the men's dormitory? We have a guest I'd like you to keep an eye on."

"Yes, Captain," came a smooth modulated voice. A moment later, a bipedal droid came around the corner. It stood perhaps five feet tall, and its arms extended a bit below what would be considered human norm, but its gait was measured and serene. "Captain Liana," the droid said, "I am afraid T5-E4 is about ready to inadvertently do harm to Master Renn in the name of streamlining the pre-flight checklist. Is this the 'guest' you referred to?"

She sighed and nodded. "I'm going to lock the door. Please alert us when this man wakes up."

"Yes, Captain," the droid reiterated, taking up a station inside the door as Liana closed and locked it behind herself and Kara. The ship began to rumble as repulsors and engines came online.

Along the curved corridor was another dormitory. Liana opened the door and waved Kara inside. "Please take either of the other bunks and make yourself comfortable. If you'll excuse me, I need to get to the cockpit. Please let B4-K3 know if you need anything."

Alone at last, Kara dumped her small travel bag onto the bunk and plopped down next to it. She looked about the small room, taking in the odd knicknacks around the only other used bunk. Her first time going into space, leaving the world, leaving her home.

She should be excited. But to Kara, it was just a reminder of why she was leaving, and of what she lost.

***

Renn was on the comm with planetary traffic control when Liana slipped into the cockpit and seated herself in the pilot's chair.

"Come on, Daj. I understand that everyone else wants to get going too," her partner was saying. "We can make it worth your while if you bump us to the top of the list."

The static-filled voice of the control officer sounded through the enclosed space. "Are you trying to bribe me, Renn?"

"Of course not, Daj. You know we're honest. I'm just trying to expedite things. Our cargo is vital and time-sensitive. We need to lift off immediately."

"Why didn't you say it was _vital?"_ drawled the officer. "All right, I'll see what I can do, but you owe me this time, Renn." The comm clicked off. Renn flicked the switch on the control panel and sat back in his chair. The small astromech droid beeped something rude-sounding as it rolled past his chair and out into the corridor.

"Is he a friend?" Liana asked. She didn't know most of the contacts Renn had made over the years, only that he seemed to know at least one person in every starport they'd visited.

"Sort of." Renn frowned, staring out the viewport at the open docking bay doors. "He's a good man. I usually buy him a few rounds when we're here." He sighed. "So now we hurry up and wait...."

Liana watched her partner with a careful eye. She knew more or less what he was thinking just by his expression. He was probably wondering how easy — or how crazy — it would be to just take off without waiting for clearance. That she'd invited the girl aboard without consulting him was probably also a sore point, though he wouldn't bring it up. Renn would trust her judgment, even if he didn't like her decisions. That, too, was something she knew from their long association.

"Wanderer, this is Derra IV traffic control. You're cleared for lift. Be careful out there, though. I don't know what the Sith are after, but they're pretty insistent that it's here."

Renn's hand found the comm control again. "Thanks, Daj. You're a lifesaver."

Liana had already taken control, and the ship lifted gracefully from the ground before speeding out through the open doors. The hull rattled only a little as they cleared the atmosphere and emerged into the star-speckled blackness of space.

***

Thrusting himself up from the warm embrace of his bed, Kirennan Venaar felt the thrill of the hunter's call sounding in his blood.

Their prey was attempting to flee.

He stabbed a concealed comm button in the bedchamber's darkness with perfect accuracy. A young bridge officer's query answered.

"Lord Venaar? How may we serve you?"

"A ship," he began hurriedly. "A ship is launching from the planet below, from the western region, near our landing point, is it not?"

A few moments passed. "Yes, My Lord. A light freighter."

"Intercept that ship at once! Launch every droid fighter we have ready!"

"Yes, My Lord!" the officer responded. "A flight is already in the area and we will reinforce them at once."

"Do not lose that ship. Everything depends on taking it intact," he commanded, and broke the connection.

'Soon, Bladedancer's kin,' he thought with a smile. 'Soon you will be ours....'

***

The sudden bounce of the ship threw Kara from her bunk, spilling her onto the deck.

Picking herself up, she barely had time to wonder what was going on when another extreme maneuver of the ship threw her against the bulkhead. Stumbling through the hatchway, she haltingly made her way to the bridge of the freighter, going more by instinct than anything.

"What's going on?" she asked of Renn and Liana, who were both frantically working their consoles.

"We're under attack," Renn snapped, not even looking up from his display. "Sit down and strap in." He didn't stop to see if she obeyed, though she obediently sank into one of the chairs in the rear of the cockpit, fumbling with the unfamiliar set of safety straps before finally securing them over her chest.

The ship rattled again. "Six fighters. I don't think they're manned," Renn said. "Their movements are too precise. Hold on, I'm going to try something."

From what Kara could tell, Liana was the one flying the ship. She couldn't understand what Renn was doing — maybe manning weapons?

"Let's see how you like this," the man muttered, his hands flying across the board in front of him.

The ship swerved to avoid a laser barrage from a trio of small metallic fighters that swept across the viewport in front of them. More lasers flashed from somewhere behind them, a near miss that rocked the small craft, and the other three fighters swept into view. "Hurry," Liana said.

In front of them, Kara could see both sets of fighters making wide turns to head straight back toward them. She braced herself, but the impact of a fresh laser barrage never came. When they fired, it was not at the Wanderer, but at one another.

Before she could ask what had just happened, Renn spoke up again. "They're scrambling more fighters. We need to get out of here now."

"Already working on it," Liana replied. Her hands flew across her own console. The starfield before them seemed to stretch and distort as the ship jumped into hyperspace.

The jolt of acceleration passing, Kara looked about in confusion and grave doubt. "Does this sort of thing happen often?"

"More often since we met you," Renn added, unstrapping himself from the co-pilot's chair. "I don't know who you annoyed, girl, but they're serious about getting you."

"Renn, stop," Liana said quietly. The woman had slumped back in the pilot's chair, looking drained and exasperated.

"Why did the fighters attack each other?" Kara asked.

Renn stretched. "I hacked into the transmissions from their control ship and convinced them that we were friendly and that the other fighters were hostile."

She blinked, trying to process the information. "Is that hard?"

"Not for me."

"So underhanded sneakiness comes naturally to you, is that it?" she asked with a happy smile. She wasn't trying to return his barb, but she wanted him to know she wasn't going to take his ego either.

Before Renn could respond, Liana's comlink beeped. "Captain," B4's voice sounded, "your 'guest' is awake, and he appears to be in a rather foul mood."


	3. Aeron

Daj huddled in a small uncomfortable chair. Two meters away from him was a small desk and another chair, this one currently occupied by a Sith naval officer, a Major judging by the decorations on his uniform. The officer looked coolly at him and Daj shuddered.

"Now," the Sith said, "tell me again, why did you authorize the Wanderer to launch?"

Daj stammered something about a glitch in the system, that a clearance had supposedly been issued by the traffic computer, but he could tell his questioner knew it to be a lie by the darkening of the man's expression.

The officer had just opened his mouth to speak again when the door opened. A regal man in gold- and jewel-bedecked robes entered.

"Forgive the intrusion, Major Alsten. Our time does not allow for the normal methods of questioning, I'm afraid. I will deal with this man personally."

The officer rose and bowed. "As you wish, my Lord." He turned on his heel and left.

"Lo- Lord?" Daj echoed fearfully.

The man did not reply. He merely gazed levelly at Daj. His eyes were two depthless dark pools of night, and Daj felt something, something altogether wrong.

When it passed, Daj slumped in the chair.

The Lord said something into a comlink, then turned back to his prisoner. "Return to your work," he commanded.

Daj rose.

He moved woodenly through the hallways of the Sith ship, and finally outside, through the docking bay and towards a transit center. He took a droid taxi back to the Othani spaceport and entered the control tower. He climbed stairs, walked down hallways, all without acknowledging anyone.

He sat at his desk, watching the blips on the screen through tears. He reached for buttons automatically, performing tasks with the air of old habit. He could feel those deep, dark eyes still on him, even now.

Finally, he took his required break. He left the office, and climbed another set of stairs. He found himself on the roof. The dark eyes followed him, watching, piercing, seeing everything he was, everything he would ever be.

He could not escape them any other way.

He took one more step, and the world lurched.

***

Aeron Rhade, humble traveler of the ways of the Force, knew that his all-consuming quest for knowledge could not possibly end in his lifetime. His was a life of service to the future, to those who would follow in his footsteps, even as he had followed the way of Masters past.

This fact brought him peace. Most beings his age were concerned with more mundane things: finding a mate, gaining material wealth, and so on. Few, if, indeed, any of them, would ever know their place in the world, or know the contentment borne of acceptance of that place.

Yes, young Aeron Rhade's feet were firmly on the well-trodden path of enlightened study. He knew how his days would flow, one into another, as he sat with his books and with his Masters, learning the will of the Force and contemplating the nature of life itself.

And so it was with profound doubt and disquiet that he found himself awaking in a small shipboard dormitory.

A bipedal droid stood nearby, watching him with obvious intent.

"Where am I?" he asked it.

"The men's dormitory," the droid answered with infuriating accuracy.

"Why am I here?" Aeron demanded.

"Is that a philosophical query, or a request for historical account?"

Sitting up abruptly, the entire room spun before Aeron's eyes. He reached inward and the Force stabilized his balance. Feeling about him, Aeron started in shock.

"Where is my lightsaber?!"

"I do not know, sir. Where did you leave it?"

"Blast it, you hulk of artifice, I want answers and I want them now!"

It was not a comforting feeling when the droid replied by speaking into a comlink. "Captain, your 'guest' is awake, and he appears to be in a rather foul mood." The report concluded, the droid continued to stand and stare at him, as if awaiting further instruction.

***

Kara and Liana entered the men's dormitory together. The Captain stayed by the door, crossing her arms over her chest, while the girl took a seat across from the occupied bunk. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Aeron Rhade," the man replied curtly. "Am I your prisoner, Dark Lord?"

"I don't know where you come from," Kara replied dryly, "but if I look like a 'Lord' to you, obviously they don't let you out often."

Liana chuckled at that. "You are no one's prisoner, Jedi. We brought you with us after you were stunned by the Sith back on Derra IV."

"But her weapon, it's a Sith blade...." he interjected.

"My weapon," Kara replied, "is an heirloom of my family. I don't even what 'Sith' means."

Aeron's dark eyebrows arched sharply downward. "Family?" he echoed. "Are you, perchance, Bladedancer's kin, then?"

Kara recognized the name from the strange message she'd found in the holocron she kept hidden in her pouch. "And if I am?" she asked.

"Then you are the one I seek!" he said, all traces of bitterness leaving his face.

"You and everybody else apparently," she muttered. "Why are you seeking me?"

"I saw you in a vision," Aeron said. "I saw you fighting a man, then I saw the end of everything."

"Who was I fighting?" Kara asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen him, but he bore a lightsaber, and you were fighting him with your double-bladed weapon. In the midst of the fight, it split into two lightsabers."

Taking out her weapon, Kara examined it closely. "Split?"

Aeron nodded. "Yes. Only one person in all the archives of the Jedi is mentioned as having a blade that could do that. Selene Au Vanden, better known as Selene Bladedancer."

"That was my grandmother..." Kara eyed this stranger warily. "Selene. But she was no Jedi, she came to Derra IV to hide."

"Selene Bladedancer," Aeron began with the tone of a scholar explaining the obvious to a rock, "was the foremost blade master in all the Jedi Order, even while a Padawan learner. She followed Revan into the Mandalorian Wars, but disappeared shortly after the Jedi intervention began. Revan's fall to the dark side marked the rise of the fallen Jedi known as the Sith, and the start of the Jedi civil war."

"So you thought I was some kind of evil Jedi for having her lightsaber?"

"Traditionally, only the Sith carry red blades. It is possible that your grandmother followed Revan in her fall, I suppose, but I had not seen anything in the archives about that."

The words rang false. Everything about them stood in stark contrast to what little Kara knew of Selene. "My grandmother fled to Derra IV to hide herself and the Music from the outside world. That does not sound like a betrayal to me."

"Music?" Aeron echoed.

"The song sung by all life. I hear it, inside," Kara explained.

"The Force... I was not mistaken when I saw it burn brightly in you," Aeron breathed. "Have you had training?"

"My mother taught me what Grandmother taught her. Why is it important?"

"You need to accompany me to the Academy," he declared firmly. "The Masters must be informed of your existence."

"What Academy? Where?"

"The Jedi Academy where I learned to feel the Force, what you erroneously call 'Music'. I cannot tell you where it is, but you must be taken there at once."

"Forget it. I have commitments."

"What 'commitments'?" Aeron demanded.

"First, I agreed to help Liana and Renn for taking me off Derra IV, and for getting you out of Sith custody. Then, I mean to find those responsible for the death of my family and... deal with them."

"You cannot!" Aeron exclaimed, aghast.

"Don't tell me what I can't do." Kara's voice grew cold, her eyes burning like starfire. "They were murdered, chained and burned alive. I mean to find out why and see that their killers suffer and die!"

"That is not the Jedi way-" he began, but she cut him off before the words had left his lips.

"I'm not a Jedi. I didn't ask to be in the middle of this, and I sure as hell didn't have to save you. I don't need any lectures either." She turned and stalked out of the room.

***

Liana did not follow Kara from the room immediately. Her face grim, she took Aeron's lightsaber hilt from a pouch at her waist. "Be assured that your weapon is safe, but I intend to keep it until I am certain you can be trusted. Which I am not."

She paused, then slipped the weapon back into her pouch as he spluttered something incoherent about a Jedi's weapon being his life.

"The cub has just lost her family and all that she has ever known. I had heard that the Jedi were a compassionate people. I am sorry to see I was wrong." With that, she left, locking the door again behind her.

***

To hell with it, Renn thought, pushing himself up out of his seat in the cockpit. He wasn't actually doing anything up here other than finding excuses to keep from going back to his room — or rather, the dormitory, now that he had an involuntary roommate. He knew he needed to try to catch some elusive sleep now, just in case. The fact that the Jedi idiot was now awake made that prospect much less appealing, but it was sleep or stims, and the latter was something he tried to avoid if he could help it.

He started down the corridor toward the back of the ship, wondering if Liana would be mad if he stunned the Jedi again, when another body came around the bend and slammed into him. He stumbled back, catching hold of the other person for a moment, but then he let go quickly when he saw that it was the girl, Kara. "Watch where you're going," he growled.

"Sorry," she snapped back. "You were right, by the way. We should have left his sorry carcass back on the cantina floor."

Renn's eyebrows shot up. If it were up to him, he'd have left them both, but the girl was paying at least. "What did you expect, answers? He's a Jedi. They make a living being cryptic and self-righteous."

"And you make yours being snotty and obnoxious?" She pushed past him and stormed towards the other dormitory.

"What the hell-?" He stared after her for a moment. Behind him, he heard the door of the men's dormitory slide open. "Don't you start, too," he muttered.

"Start?" Liana inquired.

He turned to look at her. "What's with the kid?"

"Ah." His partner's ears twitched in the manner he'd come to associate with annoyance. "The Jedi was not very sympathetic to her loss." She looked down at him. "You could stand to be a little more compassionate toward her as well, Renn." She continued past him toward the cockpit.

He grit his teeth. Why was everyone against him today? He practically slammed his hand down on the panel to unlock the door. He glanced at the Jedi for a moment before throwing himself down on his own bunk. He hoped his desire for silence was something the man could read with those magic Force tricks of his.

"Tell me," the Jedi asked, "where are we bound?"

Apparently not.

Renn groaned. "Ord Mantell." Hopefully without the Sith finding out, but he didn't have a lot of faith in that outcome. Come to think of it, were the Sith after Kara or this idiot? Or both?

The Jedi made a small gesture of annoyance. "Tell me on what business."

It was not a question.

For a moment, Renn wanted to tell the Jedi all the details of their delivery. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, frowning. What-? No. No, this was not going to happen. He pushed himself up from the bunk violently, glaring at the other man. "You don't try that again, you understand me? Next time you do, I push you out the airlock. Hell, I think the kid would help."

"Very well, then tell me why I am held prisoner."

"Because of tricks like that," Renn retorted, sitting back down on his bunk and surreptitiously checking for the blaster he kept hidden in the wall compartment above the bed. "This is our ship. We don't trust you, and you just confirmed why we shouldn't."

"Forgive my rudeness," the man replied. "But see it from my side. I am stunned by Sith troopers and awaken in a locked chamber aboard a ship headed for parts unknown and crewed by people whose motives remain unclear. I required information and sought to obtain it the most reliable way I knew." The grimace he wore showed that he wasn't used to apologizing, or explaining his motives. "Let us begin again. I am Aeron Rhade. I would like to know what you intend for me at our destination."

"I don't intend anything. The kid paid your passage, and it's up to her what to do with you. If I had any say in it, we'd dump you both at Ord Mantell and be done with it."

"I see...." He fell into silence. He sat, arms and legs folded on the bunk, eyes fluttering closed, silent as a stone.

Renn found the blaster and slid it under his pillow before lying down again, hand curled over it, to try and sleep. For a long while he lay there, eyes closed, but his mind just wouldn't shut off. It kept chasing itself around in circles.

After what felt like hours of this, his eyes snapped open and fixed on his new roommate. "Would you stop that?!" he growled, seeing the man still sitting in his meditation pose. He couldn't quite say why, but he found it intensely irritating.

Eyes still shut, Aeron responded dryly, "Am I thinking too loudly? I would do so elsewhere, but I am still a prisoner."

Renn groaned and rolled over to face the wall. This... this just wasn't going to work.

***

Liana looked up at the blinking light that had just come on on the console beside her. A message? She leaned over to check it. It was short, saying only that their contact, Boss Qui, would meet them in orbit above Ord Mantell, due to certain unfortunate circumstances on the surface. She considered this. Perhaps some local law enforcement was upset with him. No matter; they could rendezvous with him just as easily in orbit. She sent back a short acceptance before settling back into the pilot's seat.

Footsteps behind her brought Liana out of her reverie. It was Kara.

"That's a very, um, interesting astromech you have. Are they all that-" She searched for a word. "-aggressive?"

Liana looked over her shoulder at the girl. "Not really. I understand that series is prone to strange personality traits, but we cannot afford to wipe its memory. The last time we tried, its efficiency dropped dramatically. Has it been disturbing you?"

"Very little of this trip hasn't disturbed me," Kara said. "Sorry, I didn't mean that as an insult. I just seem to butt heads with everyone lately."

"It is understandable. You are surrounded by strangers and far from home. It will get easier with time." Liana nodded toward the co-pilot's seat, indicating that the girl should sit if she wanted to. "I should apologize for Renn. He is not an easy man to get along with at times."

"Please," Kara said, taking the proffered seat, "don't worry about it. He's right. I'm basically an unneeded complication to you two. It's good of you to take me on, payment or no."

Liana gave her a small, feline smile. She saw a lot of a girl she once was in this human cub. "I would not have left you in need. It is not my way."

Kara smiled, then yawned so wide she felt her head would split. "Excuse me," she said embarrassed.

Liana's ears dipped. "How long since you last slept?"

"Far too long," Kara was forced to admit.

"Go then, and rest. I will call you. We have some hours yet until we reach our destination."

Nodding, Kara excused herself and went back to the dormitory.

***

"We've arrived," came Liana's voice over the ship's intercom after several hours. Renn rolled out of his bunk on auto-pilot. At least he'd managed a few hours of sleep. Stopping to straighten his clothes, he saw the damn Jedi was still in that pose. He shook his head, then let himself out of the dormitory.

He had just stumbled into the cockpit, feeling only slightly disheveled, when the comm chimed. He dropped into his chair and thumbed the button. "Greetings, Wanderer," said a smooth voice.

"Boss Qui, I presume," he responded.

"Indeed. So glad you were flexible enough to agree to meet me in orbit." Renn shot a perplexed look toward Liana, who nodded.

"Anything for a customer," Renn improvised, with another sharp look toward his partner.

"A good attitude to have, Wanderer. I heard of poor Thes's demise from a mutual contact. I assume you were able to load the goods before leaving Derra IV or else you wouldn't have come all this way."

"Yes, sir, and we'd be happy to deliver them to you for half the fee originally promised."

The voice on the other end of the comm laughed. "I see. My ship, the Gray Specter, is en route."

"We'll be waiting."

When the comm cut off, Renn turned to Liana. "And we agreed to meet him in orbit, why?"

She stared back at him, implacable. "He requested it."

He bit back a sharp response. It wasn't her fault she thought everyone was honorable unless proven otherwise. That's what she kept him around for. "I think it's a trap."

"Why would he want to trap us? We are bringing him something he needs."

"Because if he just takes it without paying us, he gets it for free with no witnesses." He punched a few buttons. "I might be wrong, but there's no harm in being prepared. Let me go tell the girl. He might not know about her, and if he doesn't and she can fight like she did in the bar, she might be able to bail us out if it comes to it."

Liana's tail lashed. "Very well," she said finally.

He made his way toward the back of the ship again, this time stopping by the door to the women's dormitory. He stopped himself from barging right in — his usual habit — and pressed the door chime instead. "You awake?" he called.

"Yeah...." said a sleepy voice within. "Are we there yet?"

"There might be trouble. Grab your weapon and be ready." He briefly wondered if he should tell the Jedi, too, then decided against it. It wasn't like he'd do a lot of good without his lightsaber, and Renn wasn't about to suggest that Liana give it back.

"Give me a bit." She emerged a minute later stifling a yawn, but otherwise ready for action. "What sort of trouble are we in?"

"Well, our crime lord may or may not be planning to stab us in the back, and they probably don't know about you, so you may be our secret advantage." He shrugged. "Other than that, just the usual possibility of being caught by some kind of law enforcement."

"Oh. Joy," she said acidly, "I always wanted to be a criminal. Ah well, my father always said, 'no use worrying about the storm till it hits you, as long as you're prepared.'"

It was with a great act of will that Renn bit back a response that would have started another war of words that, frankly, they didn't have time for. "Just keep that lightsaber of yours handy and don't attack until we're sure he's gonna betray us." He started back down the corridor. "Liana doesn't think he will but she has a hard time believing bad of people."

"You two work well together," Kara said sincerely. They moved out into the hallway, back towards the cockpit. "You cover each other's weak points."

Renn snorted. "If that's your way of saying she's the nice one and I'm the bastard, you're right."

She laughed. "I didn't mean that exactly, but as a case in point, yes."

He didn't deny it. "You'd better hope you never see her when she's really angry."

***

Kara and Renn walked into the cockpit a minute later to see a large gray bulk almost filling the viewport. "I take it that's them?" Kara asked.

"It is," Liana answered.

Renn slipped into his seat. "They're requesting permission to dock with us."

"Granted," the Captain replied. The Wanderer shook a little as the other ship's docking ramp attached to its airlock. "I already moved the cargo earlier while you were sleeping. It is ready for them in the main hold."

The three of them made their way toward the main hold in the middle of the ship.

Renn glanced at Kara. "Stay out of sight until it's apparent we need you. We want you to be a surprise."

She nodded and crossed the main cabin to the hallway leading to the cargo hold and the engine room, finding a nice nook to hide in with a view of the main hold and airlock. She brought her lightsaber out, but didn't activate it. "I have a bad feeling about this...." she muttered to no one.

***

Boss Qui turned out to be a large man, fattening now that gray hairs graced his head but with every sign that most of that bulk had been muscle in his younger days. He was flanked by several bodyguards of different species, including a few Aqualish and a Twi'lek. "Captain Liana," he said as he stepped through the airlock. "And this must be the famous Renn Falani."

"I wouldn't say famous," Renn quipped. "Just well-travelled."

The crime lord laughed. "Indeed. And this would be the cargo?" He motioned to the four crates stacked now in the middle of the hold.

"Yes, sir," Liana replied.

He looked around. "And where is your little Jedi friend?" His smile widened as he took in their expressions. His men fanned out and surrounded them, blasters out and pointed toward the pair. "You see, I received an interesting message this morning. It seems the Sith have offered a bounty for a ship called the Wanderer, along with any and all persons found aboard. Being a good businessman, it would be foolish for me to ignore a sum of 50,000 credits."

"50,000 credits?" Renn choked. "There's no one on board worth that much-" He fell silent as the muzzle of a blaster rifle pressed into his back.

"That's for the Sith to decide, I think." Qui motioned to a pair of his men. "Search the ship. Bring anyone or anything you find here."

The two men went down the starboard companionway, right toward the niche where Kara was hiding. She withdrew a bit. Then, coming up with a desperate plan, she dug out a small coin and threw it down the hall, squeezing further into shadow.

The two thugs brought their weapons up and slowly crept down the hall, right past her and toward the tinkling sound at the far end, near the open hatch to the engine room.

In one swift move, Kara pressed the end of her lightsaber to the head of one thug and triggered it. The man's head sloughed off her blade and he dropped. His partner whirled in time to catch a wicked slash that almost cut him in half.

"Get her!" Qui shouted. He and one of his bodyguards kept their rifles trained on Renn and Liana; the rest rushed toward the girl, opening fire.

Retreating down the hall, Kara extended the other blade and surrendered to the Music. It showed her an intricate dance, and following its direction, she twisted her blade roughly; it came apart, half in each hand.

Following the Music's guidance, Kara deflected the bolts sent her way. As often as not, the returned fire hit those who shot at her.

Finally, only two of the seven were left, cowering behind bulkheads.

"You want to live?" she shouted to them. "Then run! Flee, or I will burn you down where you stand!"

The thugs fled.

Boss Qui growled as his own men ran past him. "Girl, do you hear me?" he bellowed. "Come out, or I will kill the rest of your crew."

The Music whispered a response. Kara grinned. Closing down her blades, she concealed one hilt up her sleeve, holding it casually. She Sang one opening note in her mind, then declared aloud, "All right, I'm coming out, hold your fire."

Stepping into the open, she took the exposed lightsaber hilt and rolled it across the floor. It skittered well past the two thugs and their hostages.

"I'm sorry," she said to Renn and Liana. "I can't risk your lives."

"That's right, girly," Boss Qui sneered. "You Jedi are all alike."

"Shows what you know," said Aeron from behind everyone. A snap-hiss of Kara's discarded blade later and the Twi'lek holding Renn was missing a head.

Kara's remaining blade flashed and singed Boss Qui's balding pate. "Let her go," Kara demanded.

"You let him out?" Renn grumbled, brushing at his clothes. Liana bared her teeth in his direction, her tail lashing, but she said nothing.

"You're welcome," Aeron replied.

Defeated, Boss Qui lowered his rifle, glaring at the girl. "Two Jedi," he muttered. "I should have known. Are you going to kill me now?"

"Depends on you," Kara responded. "Who put the bounty on us?"

"Lord Venaar himself," Boss Qui said in a rush.

"Venaar?" Aeron asked. "Who is that?"

"You're kidding?! You're Jedi and you don't know who the Lord of the Sith is?" Qui asked.

"We were unaware that a singular Lord had emerged," Aeron admitted stonily.

"I'll ask the questions," Kara commanded, singing another gray hair from Qui's head. "The bounty specified everyone aboard this ship? Did it mention anyone specific?"

"A Jedi, Renn and Liana.... That's all, I swear!" Qui's eyes filled with fearful tears.

"And how widespread is this bounty offered?" she demanded.

"By now? It's all over the outer and mid-rim. It may even be floating around the core."

"All right, I'm done with you." She raised her lightsaber to strike. "You may want to close your eyes."

Qui cowered and clamped his eyes shut.

Kara put every last bit of strength she could muster into the punch. It took Qui hard in the jaw; several of the man's teeth flew out as he spun around and fell to the deck.

Renn looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Alive, he can cower in fear of us and spread the word not to try and collect that bounty," Kara explained. "Dead, well... dead is dead."

"And we still have this damn cargo," Renn added, "not to mention a distinct lack of payment for it. Couldn't you have done some Jedi mind trick to get him to pay us before you knocked his teeth out?"

"So you like the Jedi mind trick when it suits you?" Aeron asked dryly.

"Aren't you assuming he doesn't have some data on his person that would give you access to his accounts?" Kara pointed out.

"That's a possibility, though he's real stupid if he does," the smuggler said, ignoring Aeron. He considered the bulk of the crime boss on the floor before bending down to rifle through the man's pockets. "Can't hurt to try tinkering with this," he said, withdrawing a datapad. "You know, they were real quick putting this bounty on us. I know for a fact they didn't get near enough to ID us. Someone sold us out."

Liana's tail flicked again. "Take him back to his ship."

Aeron and Kara quickly scooped up the unconscious figure and, with the aid of the droids, dragged Boss Qui and his dead thugs back to the Gray Specter's side of the docking connection. There, they left them in a heap in the air lock and retreated.

As soon as they were all back aboard the Wanderer, Liana rocketed her ship away from the Gray Specter, weapon mounts blazing, crippling the larger ship.

Leaving the betrayer's vessel to founder, the Wanderer escaped to the safety of hyperspace.


	4. Bladedancer

The Wanderer made three more random micro jumps, just to be sure that none of Boss Qui's goons could find them in the interstellar blackness.

Still unused to life on a starship, Kara kept mostly to the dormitory. She knew it was the one place that Aeron wouldn't badger her. Every time she'd encountered the young Jedi since their escape, he'd found a way to reiterate his desire that she accompany him to that damnable Academy. These discussions usually resulted in some rather vile arguments and a lot of snickering on Renn's part.

Aeron was persistent. He would only desist if Liana told him point blank to do so. Kara was half-convinced that he'd follow her into the 'fresher to continue an argument.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the door slid open and the Captain entered. "Ah, so this is where you've been hiding," Liana said, striding over to her bunk.

"I got sick of being preached to," Kara said grumpily.

"We do owe him a debt. Without him, we might have been dead or captured." Her tail waved in a slow way. She sat down and started to rummage through one of the satchels in which she stored her personal effects.

"I know.... But, damn it, that doesn't mean I should just bow my head and do what he wants, does it? I mean, I know as much about the Sith as I do the Jedi and neither sounds like what I want."

"I did not say that," Liana said slowly. "But we cannot keep running forever." She seemed to find what she was looking for and closed up the bag, slipping something small into her hip pouch before standing. "We would like to have a conference in the main hold to determine our destination. Please come. I will attempt to keep the Jedi from badgering you."

Kara rose and followed Liana back out.

***

Renn and Aeron were already waiting in the hold when Liana entered, the former leaning against the wall and the latter seated on the floor in the meditation pose he favored. She was aware of Kara slipping in behind her and finding the furthest possible spot from Aeron to perch.

Liana stayed near the door, so that she could see all of them. "Recent events have left us without a destination," she said simply. Her gaze fixed on Kara. "As our paying passenger, we need to see you safely to wherever you wish to go. If you name a planet, we will take you there."

"You're kidding, right?" Kara asked skeptically. "I don't even know what's around here. Heck, I can count the planets I know of on one hand."

Renn laughed. "No wonder you couldn't get a ship."

"Enough," Liana snapped, startling him — and herself — with the unfamiliar sharp tone. She tried to quiet her unease. "It seems, then, that what we need is information."

"I've looked. Nothing on this Venaar guy in any of the databases I could find," said Renn. "It's almost like he doesn't exist." He snorted. "Probably on purpose, if I had to guess."

"Forgive the monotony of this," Aeron said, "but the best place to get information about this Lord Venaar would be the Jedi Academy. We have learned over the years that it pays to watch the Sith most closely. While his elevation to Dark Lord was news to me, we probably have more information about him in our archives."

Kara's face darkened.

Liana looked at him suspiciously, but it was Renn who spoke up first. "Well, guess what? You don't tell us where this Academy of yours is, we don't go there. End of story."

Aeron looked oddly hesitant. "Well, I could transmit a request to the Masters to tell you of the location. Understand, if it were up to me, I would reveal it. Oaths, however, forbid it."

"Right," Renn replied, rolling his eyes. "I'm sure."

Liana stepped in again before things degenerated into another fight. "This is getting us nowhere. Kara does not want to go to the Jedi Academy. Where else might we find information?"

"I might know a guy," her partner said cautiously. "I don't know, though. This isn't the usual kind of request I go to him with."

"Contact him, see if he might know anything." Her tail started to sway again. "In the meantime, we have a more immediate concern. What is in these?" she asked, pointing to the cargo they had moved out into the middle of the hold when Boss Qui came aboard.

"Yeah, let's see what we're stuck with. Maybe we can find a new buyer." Renn pushed himself off the wall and crouched by the cargo containers. Prying up the lid, he uncovered neat rows of bottles, all surrounded with so much foam and packing material that nothing was going to budge them. He lifted one out. "Corellian brandy," he muttered, making a face at it.

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Kara asked.

"Might be able to find a buyer, but it's not too terribly hard to get." Renn put the bottle back and closed up the crate. "Hey, Jedi, make yourself useful and help me get this stuff back into the compartment."

The crate lifted into the air and bumped against Renn. "Where to?" Aeron asked acidly.

Renn opened the cargo compartment, muttering something under his breath about telling the Jedi where to put it. Liana shook her head. She really didn't have the patience for their quarreling just now. She turned and left the hold, making her way back to the cockpit.

Of course, there was nothing she could do here, either, she thought, sliding into the pilot's chair. Renn would have to contact his informant before they knew where they were going. Instead, she busied herself checking fuel levels and sensor readings - things that the droids could do just as easily.

Satisfied that everything was running smoothly, Liana reached into her pocket and withdrew the object she had fetched from her bag when she had gone to get Kara. It was a small thing, a little stone from the colony world where she had been born. It had been blessed for her by a priest of her Goddess before she left home, and it was as a holy object that she treated it now, offering a silent prayer to see them all through this.

"What do you have there, Liana?" Kara asked from the hatchway.

Liana's ears twitched involuntarily. She hadn't heard the girl approach. "It's a prayer stone," she said, without turning. She wrapped her fingers tightly around it. "Have they started fighting again?" she asked.

Kara seemed uncomfortable about interrupting her. "I wasn't aware they'd paused." Taking a couple of steps forward, she hung her head. "I am sorry he's been such a burden. Even if he saved us, he's still insufferable."

"It's not your fault," Liana replied. "He should not have had to save us." Finally, she gave voice to the sentiment that had plagued her since they rocketed away from Boss Qui's ship. "I know the type of men we deal with. I should have taken more precautions."

"Is that why you've been stalking about like a furry thundercloud?"

"I have not-" Liana began, but then she shook her head. The girl was right. As Renn would say, she'd been brooding. "I should be able to protect my ship and those on it."

"My mother had a saying, 'you live and you learn.' Yes, you made a mistake, but we all came through it all right and the ship wasn't harmed."

Liana seemed to consider this, but her musings were interrupted as Renn stalked into the room.

"You left me alone with the Jedi," he said accusingly, pushing past Kara to drop into his chair. He immediately started tinkering with his console. "I should be able to get some messages out and get some information, not to mention a buyer for that stuff in the hold."

"That sounds good." Kara said, stifling a yawn. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm still a bit tired."

"We're all running on low sleep," Renn said. "You could use some rest too, Captain."

Liana nodded slowly. "You're right. I trust you won't damage anything."

"Hey, I can handle it. If it makes you feel better, I'll wake you up when I get us a destination." Renn extracted the datapad he'd snagged from Boss Qui and laid it on the console. "Besides, I should get cracking on this beauty. Go on, get some sleep."

"All right." Liana stood, motioning that Kara should proceed her toward the door. She laid one hand briefly on her partner's shoulder, then followed the girl out.

***

Renn watched the women leave the cockpit, then shook his head, turning back to his console. He hadn't wanted to say anything to Liana but it was obvious she was angry at herself. A little rest was just what she needed to help clear her mind.

First things first. He sent a brief encrypted message out to the usual haunts. You didn't contact Gaman; he contacted you if he thought you had something promising. Renn then plugged Qui's datapad into a slot in the terminal and began a search of the contents. It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for — a lead into what sounded to be a very lucrative bank account out of Nar Shaddaa. A few careful transfers of funds through multiple banks ought to do nicely. He would make sure to pass them through a second bank on Nar Shaddaa as well, just to help muddy the waters.

The comm sounded. Renn glanced over at the display. Voice only, secure channel. He smoothly changed the course of one hand to hit the switch. "Gaman."

"Falani," the other man said. "You're lucky I owe you a favor. Rumor says you're bad luck to deal with just now."

"Oh yeah? Who's 'rumor' this week, Gaman?"

"Daj out of Derra IV is dead, one day after you make a spectacular escape from the planet. Now you and your lovely Captain have got a price on your heads. She's doing well, I hope?"

Renn's hands fell still. "Daj is dead? How?"

"Supposedly he took a long walk off the top of his control tower after being taken into custody for questioning by a squad of Sith troopers."

It would explain how they got the name of the ship, how they got a bounty out so quickly. Renn took a long, deep breath and uncurled his clenched fingers. "You still willing to deal?"

"Like I said, you're lucky I owe you a favor, Falani. If I didn't, I wouldn't be caught dead speaking to you."

"I have two things for you. One's simple. Four crates of Corellian brandy we need to unload."

"I'll be able to find a buyer. Easier than you can, I expect. And the other?"

"I need everything you can find out on the current Lord of the Sith. He calls himself Venaar."

There was a sharp hiss of indrawn breath over the comlink. "You working against the Sith now?"

"Let's just say we have a passenger with an interest. Besides, we should know who's trying to kill us."

Gaman chuckled. "That's a dangerous request, Falani. Your favor covers the goods, but digging up info on a Sith Lord? I might end up the same as poor Daj."

"Not funny."

"Wasn't trying to be."

"Look," Renn said quietly, "Gaman, I know the network you have. We don't need to know his life story. Just get me something we can use — what kind of forces he has at his disposal, at least."

A sigh. "All right, all right. I'll see what I can find. Bring the cargo to Bhardesh. I'll send another message with more contact info on a buyer there. But this time, you owe me. Got it, Falani?"

"Got it," he replied, sitting back in his chair. The comm clicked off without a goodbye.

"You hear that?" Renn called over his shoulder to the astromech, who was puttering around at the computers behind him. A rude beeping sound answered him. "Well, start entering the calculations into the navicomputer." Another distinctly nasty sounding chorus of beeps. "Because I'm busy, that's why!" A resigned whine, and the little droid wheeled off.

Renn stared down at his console again and sighed. Liana... she needed her rest. He'd tell her later.

***

Fire, death and flashes of incalculable masculine beauty.

Kara was dreaming, and knew it as such. Things here bit at her mind with such clarity they surpassed the real.

The images roiled over and over. The farm burning, her family buried in graves that dark soldiers marched over, and that face that haunted her once before, that breathtakingly beautiful face.

And above it all, the red crystal pyramid gleamed with knowing eyes.

"Come to me," echoed through the world. "Come to me, my kin."

Kara sat bolt upright, eyes wide, drenched in sweat.

The dormitory was dark.

Breathing heavily, as if she'd just run a great distance, Kara slowly relaxed, her muscles unwilling to let go of their tension in case some enemy might still be about. Inexorably, she drew her knees up to her chest and rested her forehead against them. Gradually, she brought her laboring heart back under control.

Digging in the small footlocker Liana had given for her use, Kara found the crystal pyramid and set it on her bunk before her.

In the dream, it had burned with power and sentient wisdom, but here, now, it sat dull and unimpressive.

"So, I'm here. How do I make you work?" she asked the object.

Answers were not forthcoming.

"Damn it, old woman, you tore my life apart for this thing and now you make it go all silent?" Anger began to bubble in Kara. How dare her grandmother leave this mess for her to fix? How dare her parents keep this secret from her, if they even knew themselves?

Fury blazing in her eyes, Kara reached for the cursed thing again, impulsively intending to dash it against the bulkhead, when the crystal flared again into crimson life.

"Kara?" Liana's voice came from the far bunk. She was sitting up, blinking blearily toward the red light emanating from the crystal. "What is that...?"

The image of the old woman seemed to consider the room and its occupants. "Welcome, Seekers. I am Selene Bladedancer. Learn from my wisdom, if you will."

"Are you Selene, my grandmother?" Kara demanded of the image.

"In life, I was mother to Mairi Ni Vanden," Selene said in response. "If she, in turn, bore you, then yes."

"You are what the Sith are after," Kara said. It was not a question. "Why?"

Selene's eyes flicked from Kara to Liana. "Child, I am but a shadow of what Selene was in life. If the Sith again seek my holocron, then I do not now know the reason for it."

"But you warned me before," Kara responded. "You said that the knowledge this... holocron... contains must not be used again."

"And so it should not. If any again walk the path I trod, then the galaxy, the universe itself, will cease to be."

Liana slid out of bed as the hologram was speaking and now walked toward it, eyes fixed on it. "Is it a recording? How is it responding?" she asked quietly.

"The object you see before you is a holocron," Selene explained. "Through it, one sensitive to the Force can, with training, take a portion of their life and wisdom and store it for future generations. Do not mistake this for some mere data terminal. I am aware of those about me, their motives, and their intentions."

"So you are somehow alive?" Kara asked.

"In a fashion. I am neither fully bound to this world or the next. I am as you see me."

"What do you know of the Sith? Did you serve them in life?"

Selene's face darkened. "I served Revan, yes. I stood with her when she broke with the Jedi and entered the Mandalorian War.... More than that, I will not say now."

"Do you know of Venaar?" Liana asked.

Selene's eyes flashed. "Him! Yes, I know of him, cursed be his destiny."

"What can you tell us of him?" Kara demanded. "Why is he after me?"

"The coming of Lord Venaar was foretold to me in a vision. I knew he would seek what I fervently guard, and that he would be the Avatar."

"Avatar?" Kara echoed.

"His will is not entirely his own. It is his doom."

The dormitory suddenly flooded with harsh light as the door opened.

"What Sith magic is this?!" Aeron demanded. "I felt dark currents running through the Force, and now I find you with a Sith holocron!"

Selene gazed with arctic chill at Aeron. "Fool. What darkness do you speak of? The dark side of the Force? The darkness within all life? The ultimate dark that awaits us at the end of this long exile? Tell me, oh fount of wisdom, tell me of this darkness."

With that, she faded.

Liana pushed tendrils of her loose mane back from her face. "Your 'disturbance in the Force' aside, do you realize you have entered our quarters without permission?"

These words broke the trance that held Kara. She glanced down at herself. Her wardrobe being sparse, she'd merely stripped to her skivvies for bed. Now she dove for the blankets to cover herself.

"Um, I...." Aeron stammered.

"Get out of here, you pervert!" Kara bellowed and lunged, smacking him hard across the cheek.

***

Renn looked up from his console as Aeron stumbled into the cockpit and sagged into one of the secondary chairs in the rear, behind the pilot's seat. He took in their reluctant passenger and the angry red splotch on his cheek. He'd heard most of the commotion for himself a few minutes earlier; enough, at least, to make a rough guess at what had happened. "So, the kid finally had enough of you, huh?"

"I do not understand her anger," Aeron said in confusion. "I told her my purpose for entering and she assaulted me."

"So you barged into their bedroom without warning, and you don't know what you did wrong?" Renn leaned back in his chair, unable to keep a smirk from his lips. "You must've gotten an eyeful if she slapped you that hard."

"I didn't notice," Aeron retorted hotly. "I did not go into their chamber to ogle them!"

"Sure you didn't. I suppose the Force told you to go in there, right?"

"As a matter of fact, it did," the Jedi snapped. "I felt dark emanations from their chamber and found them studying a Sith holocron."

More Jedi mystic babbling. Renn shrugged. "Hell, if it's able to give them information on this Venaar character, I couldn't care less what they were consulting. It's just some artifact. It's not like it's going to blow up the ship or anything, is it?" He turned back to his console.

"I suppose... but they shouldn't have been studying it without guidance. Such things easily corrupt the unwary." He rubbed at his cheek disconsolately. "She didn't have to hit me so hard," he muttered.

Renn kept his eyes on his console. "She must really not like you. Good."

One of Aeron's dark eyebrows arched. "I see. You entertain certain... ideas, do you?"

"Like hell. I'm just glad the kid has better taste than that."

"Then why do you refuse to look me in the eye?"

Renn turned to glare at him. "I guess I'm just hoping you'll go away if I ignore you. What are you doing up here anyway? Don't you have to go meditate on why you got slapped?"

"Meditation would not enlighten me as to why I was slapped. This conversation is at least of mild interest and, besides, I can see something gnaws you, something besides me."

"It's none of your business," Renn snapped, turning back to his console again.

"Seriously, Renn. What is bothering you? I sense it is important."

"No one asked you to sense anything, Jedi." Renn realized he was grinding his teeth and stopped with some effort. Aeron continued to watch him, saying nothing.

"Look, would you stop staring at me like that?" Renn said finally. "You really want to know? A friend of mine is dead. He did us a favor and got us off Derra IV, and the Sith killed him for it."

Aeron seemed to consider his words. "And you think you are in some way responsible?"

"We all are. We're all mixed up in this thing now. Daj is dead because we escaped. The Sith may have done it, but we gave them a reason to."

"We most certainly did not!" Aeron suddenly thundered. "Yes, we are embroiled in great events that are beyond our knowledge, but we are not responsible for this man's death. Did one of us execute him? Did we put a blaster to his head and fire? Did we, ourselves, decide to end this man's life? Of course not. By saying it is our — or your — fault, you forgive the responsibility of those who truly committed this murder. No, Renn. We are not responsible."

Renn was aching to punch the sanctimonious idiot himself, but he didn't so much as twitch in Aeron's direction. He wasn't worth the effort. "No wonder the Jedi almost died out after the war. You only care about yourselves. Why don't you just take your Jedi philosophy back to Solara on someone else's ship?"

"How did you learn that name?" Aeron demanded, face going chalky.

Renn touched a few buttons on his control panel, bringing up a copy of Aeron's last report to his Jedi Masters, smiling in cold satisfaction at the other man's reaction. "You really ought to learn how to encrypt your super-secret reports better, especially if you're using our ship's comm system to send them. I mean, even if I was stupid enough _not_ to have a tracer program monitoring all incoming and outgoing signals, a child could have sliced your message. Oh, and I'm not sure I like how you described me, either."

Dumbfounded, Aeron demanded, "You spied on me?"

"Not you specifically. Ship's security. I'm sure you understand. Have to make sure we're not being tracked or, well, spied on."

Aeron was silent.

"And, of course, once I had a possible name, I needed corroboration, so I did some digging on my own," Renn continued, watching Aeron's face. The Jedi's mix of astonishment and anger was enough to sate his own rage. The smug bastard had earned this.

"Solara hasn't got any resources to speak of," Renn explained. "So you'd have to import. Food, water, everything. These resources flow pretty freely there, and at a level that only a large colony could require. The freighters all leave empty, so there's no export. The only sort of complex that has no export with that much import is a military base, and there's no such base on Solara."

He finally rose and leaned in conspiratorially. "The nail in the coffin, though... if you want to be secretive, it's a bad idea for whoever D'Yarn is to sign for such shipments with the title 'Master'. It sort of screams 'Jedi'."

Renn ignored Aeron's attempts to stammer a response and dropped back into his seat, then keyed the ship's intercom. "Liana, my contact came through with a buyer. We're heading to Bhardesh to drop the goods. We should be there in a few hours." He paused, frowned. "Gaman had some other info, too. It's not good."

"On my way," Liana's voice replied.

She entered a few minutes later with Kara. The girl stopped, glared at Aeron, and instead of taking the other seat next to him, she stood as far away from him as she could within the confines of the cockpit, over by Renn's seat. Renn hastily pulled up some sensor readings on his display to replace the Jedi's report.

Liana sat, her eyes fixed on her partner. "What news did he have?"

Renn glanced toward Kara, then back at Liana. "The Sith killed Daj on Derra IV. If I had to guess, it's how they found out about us so quickly."

Kara's head whipped around. "A man died because of us?" she asked in horror.

"Yeah. He's the one who cleared our launch. He owed me a favor." Renn frowned in Aeron's direction, but the Jedi didn't seem as keen on his 'we're not responsible' speech this time around.

"Then he should be honored in our actions," Liana said quietly. She bowed her head in a moment's silent prayer.

"So," Kara asked, "what are the plans after we get to Bhardesh?"

"We find our buyer and, if nothing happens during the deal, I think we can safely stay on-planet to get fuel and supplies," Liana said.

"You should change some of those crystals of yours into cash while we're there," Renn told Kara. "Just in case."

Kara's look became strange, oddly detached. "Yes, I probably should. If it's not too much trouble, could you... um.... I don't want to get taken advantage of because I don't know the local exchanges...."

"Sure, for a cut."

"Renn!" Liana's tone was sharp.

"It was a joke, come on."

"No, it was an attempt," his partner said, running her fingers through her mane, exasperated.

"Seriously, I'll do it," Renn told Kara.

"Thank you." She left without another word. Renn frowned after her; something in her tone was off.

Aeron broke from his thoughtful reverie. "She seems distraught. If you will excuse me, Renn has opened my eyes to something and I would like to meditate." He rose and left also.

Liana glanced at her partner curiously. "Hell if I know what he's talking about," Renn said with a shrug. "By the way, he's been using our comm system to send reports back to his Jedi Academy. I was able to trace the transmissions. He wasn't terribly careful."

She nodded. "I suspected he might. Let him continue unless it becomes an obvious danger to us." She reached into her belt pouch and extracted Aeron's lightsaber. "Return this to him before we land, in case he decides to take other transport."

Renn hefted the cylinder. He'd never held one of these things before. He was tempted to crack it open and take a look before he gave it back to the Jedi. "All right."

How easy it would be to dump both their passengers at Bhardesh, to wash their hands of them both and go into hiding until things blew over.

And then, wouldn't Daj's death be for nothing? He'd said it to Aeron earlier; they were all wrapped up in this now.

"I'll be right back," he said suddenly, pushing himself out of his seat. "I want to check on that stupid astromech droid."

It was a lame excuse. He almost believed it himself.

***

Kara sat at a small gaming table in the main hold. Hologramatic creatures skittered across its surface at random according to her input. She had no idea how to play, really; it was just something to do while she waited.

"Bad move," came Renn's voice from behind her as one of the creatures died a virtual bloody death. T5-E4 beeped emphatically from nearby, though whether it was in support of Renn's statement or just enthusiasm for the fate of the game piece, she wasn't sure.

'Violent little thing,' she reflected. "It's just one more thing I don't understand," she said, as much to herself as to Renn.

"What's that?" he asked, leaning against the wall by the door.

"I don't understand anything," she replied. "Nothing at all. I don't even understand myself anymore. Did you know, I'd never been in a fight before the cantina? Not once. Ever."

"I've seen stranger things. You held your own. Hell, you saved us all from Qui with that lightsaber trick of yours."

She smiled wryly. "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good?"

Renn snorted. "I don't trust in luck. I'd rather have something more solid to work with."

"Eventually luck runs out," Kara agreed. She slumped suddenly, like she'd been deflated. "Renn, what am I supposed to do next?"

"Well," he said, watching her, "Gaman's promised to see what he can dig up on your Sith Lord. That'll be a start. We'll go from there."

Her head came up sharply. "Wait, 'we'? But I thought you...." she trailed off, unable to finish.

"What can I say?" He smirked. "Liana likes you."

Her face brightened instantly. "Oh, well, in that case, I guess I'll hang around."

"Besides," Renn drawled, "you wouldn't last a minute without me to bail you out of trouble, farm girl."

Getting to her feet, Kara crossed the hold and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You know what, spacer boy? You're right."


	5. Respite

The world of Bhardesh lay within a cluster of stars so dense that there was literally only one way in. 

This route, called the Bottleneck, was barely wide enough to accommodate hyperspace travel in and out safely. While this made for an ideal defensive position for the Republic research base stationed on Bhardesh, it also meant that trade with the world was choked, to say the least. 

Complicating this was the high sulfur content of the planet's lithosphere. While little enough of it existed in the atmosphere, almost no vegetation could grow there except scrub-like toxic weeds. Foodstuffs of all sorts were avidly imported by the planetary population, most of whom didn't care if it was legal importation or not. Smuggling might be illegal on Bhardesh, but it was no crime. 

The Wanderer came out of hyperspace over the planet and was assigned a hangar by a bored-sounding control officer. Liana was only too glad to bring the ship to rest. Gaman had apparently come through with a follow-up message containing the buyer's contact info, because Renn was busy on comms the minute they touched down. "He'll meet us at a warehouse not far from here in about an hour," he announced. "We'll need transport for the crates. Sounds like he's pretty desperate for this stuff, too. Should pay well." 

She nodded and rose, stretching stiff muscles. "I would like the droids to stay here and keep the ship ready to leave quickly, just in case there's trouble." 

"Agreed. Let's get a speeder and get it loaded. It'll be nice to finally get rid of this stuff," Renn muttered as they left the cockpit. 

Kara and Aeron stood by the hatch, waiting to disembark. Kara still kept a bit of distance between her and the Jedi, but some of the raw anger had left her. 

The ramp lowered onto a bright day on the planet below. Liana strode down, her blaster ready, and paused at the base to look around. "It seems all right," she called back up. 

Renn started down the ramp after her, then stopped. "I almost forgot," he said, reaching into his belt pouch and withdrawing the cylinder of Aeron's lightsaber. "The Captain asked me to give this back to you. I hope you don't mind, but I've never handled one before, so I took a look at how it was assembled. Don't worry, I put it back together." 

Aeron's eyebrow raised, but he didn't say anything besides, "Thank you." He took the lightsaber and clipped it to his belt, out of sight. 

Renn withdrew a few more miscellaneous parts. "Well, I guess I should give you these, too. There were a couple of pieces left over when I reassembled it." 

Aeron sighed. "Of course there were...." He took the parts as well. Pocketing them, he followed Liana down the ramp. 

"I wonder what he'll do with B4's spare actuators?" Renn whispered to Kara, who erupted in laughter. 

Liana’s tail lashed slightly and she wondered if Renn would ever really grow up. 

*** 

This spaceport was quite a bit different from Othani back on Derra IV, Kara thought, as their rented speeder whisked them through the city towards the warehouse. Far more species of people milling about, none of the urgency and a lot more variety. 

They passed a street vendor hawking his wares, but the vendor himself was far more interesting to Kara. He looked like he'd been sculpted by some drunk god. His legs were long, muscular and attached to his shoulders. His arms were stunted and dangled from his waist. 

"What the heck is that?" she asked. 

Renn craned his neck. "A Dug. Mean little biters. Don't try to bargain with one." 

They passed a few more interesting shops. One had pieces of women's clothing on display which looked so light and airy they might be as well be holograms. Kara looked at them in wonder, then sniffed her own sleeve, wrinkling her nose. "Ugh," she said simply. 

"You should buy more clothing after you change your money," Liana suggested as she pulled the speeder to a stop to wait for pedestrians to pass. "I'm sure Renn won't mind a few extra stops." Her gaze shifted to Aeron for a moment. "If you intend to continue with us, Jedi, you may want some nondescript clothing as well." 

Kara waited for the startled objection, the banal protests that his robes were a symbol of his austere order, blah, blah, blah. She almost fell over when he nodded and said it was a most sensible precaution. 

"I wish to accompany you as long as you will have me," Aeron added, turning to Kara. "I know I have been... heavy-handed... in my insistence that you be trained. I am sorry for that, but I would like to be of service, if I may. My knowledge of the Force may assist you in choosing your own path." 

The sincerity of the offer stunned Kara. "I, uh.... Thank you. I think I have enough crystals to pay for your passage." She looked thoughtful. "But it isn't me you have to ask." She indicated Liana and Renn. 

"An apology?" Renn snorted. "Who is this and what has he done with our pet Jedi?" 

Liana shook her head at her partner's words, though she didn't look up from the speeder's controls. "As long as you are willing to abide by our rules, you may stay. You do not have to pay us for passage." 

"Oh, no," Kara pouted. "I was gonna threaten to cut him off if he got too annoying.... You're no fun, Liana." 

"That's what pushing him out the airlock is for," Renn noted darkly. 

Aeron sniffed in imitation of his former stiffness. "One does not simply stuff a Jedi out an airlock. We tend to make too great a mess against one's hull." 

"The ship can be cleaned," Kara pointed out. 

"I'm in trouble then, aren't I?" Aeron appealed to Liana. 

"Doomed," she agreed. 

*** 

They reached the warehouse in question about fifteen minutes before the meeting time their buyer had requested. They left the speeder running and the cargo still loaded in it. After their last deal had gone sour, Liana was taking no chances with this one. 

The man came alone, without even bodyguards. He was a short, thin humanoid with pinkish-purple skin and golden eyes, dressed in fine clothes. He bowed when he got close enough. "Gaman said you were punctual, Captain. I'm glad to see it." He didn't seem fazed by the four pairs of eyes fixed on him. He opened the large door set into the side of the warehouse, which was easily big enough for them to drive the speeder into. 

Once they were all inside and the warehouse door closed — and all four of them with hands on weapons, if only by reflex — the alien spoke again. "Thank you for bringing it so quickly. I have four thousand credits prepared, the amount I agreed upon with Gaman." 

Renn seemed happy about that figure, so Liana nodded and opened a crate so the buyer could inspect the bottles. "Excellent, thank you, Captain." 

"My partner will accept the money, as we unload the crates." She signaled Renn forward to deal with the financial side of things. "No powers, please," she said quietly to the Force users, lifting one of the crates down. 

Kara blinked innocently at her, then whispered to Aeron, "You gotta show me how to do that sometime." 

"Later," he hushed her. 

It took them only moments to set the crates down on the warehouse floor, by which time Renn had worked out the details of the money transfer with their strange alien buyer. "A pleasure, Captain," he said, bowing again. "I'll be sure to inform Gaman I am most pleased." 

"Thank you," she replied, returning his bow this time. It seemed he thought they were working for this Gaman, but it didn't really matter. As long as they were paid and free to attend to other business now. The man let the speeder out of the warehouse, then closed it again behind them. 

"That was too easy," Renn remarked. 

Liana bared her teeth. "Jedi, did you sense any treachery from him?" 

Aeron shrugged. "It was hard to tell. He was very intent on something, but I suspect it was not getting caught." 

"No way," Kara said. "When he talked to you, Liana, his Song was much brighter. I agree he was nervous, but not about us." 

"When we have time," Aeron said, "you must show me how you listen to the Force as music. I think it would help immensely." 

Kara smiled, but didn't comment. "So, now what, Boss?" 

Liana's ears flicked, and Renn smirked at the new title. "Now we resupply and refuel," she said. "I believe we may rest here safely, at least for a short time." 

Aeron suddenly looked thoughtful. "Perhaps we could put my stuffy old robes to a good use," he began. "It is not uncommon for a Jedi to exchange valuable trinkets for local currency. Maybe I should exchange Kara's crystal instead? It would be less remarked upon." 

"If you think you can get a good price for it," Renn shrugged. "And assuming the locals don't mistrust Jedi." 

"Better if they do. A single Jedi with a crystal like that would still draw less notice than two spacers who frankly look like they've never seen that much money, eh?" Aeron responded. "No offense," he added quickly. 

Renn snorted, then took a look around at their surroundings. "Maybe, in this backwater," he said reluctantly. 

"With the Bottleneck, they probably don't get many visitors of either persuasion," Liana put in. 

"In any event," Aeron said, "I believe I see a likely money changer. Kara, may I have one of your crystals?" 

The girl handed one over. "Just don't get mugged." 

"I'll try not to," he returned dryly as Liana pulled to a stop. 

Aeron returned a few minutes later and handed her a decidedly large pouch of coins. "These are all fairly low value," he explained. "I took the original large cash notes around and had them broken up. It should help avoid notice." 

"So, where to now?" Kara asked. 

"I need to attend to refueling the ship and restocking supplies," Liana answered. "You both could use some new clothing. Renn?" 

"I'll keep them out of trouble," he replied. 

"Do not worry, Liana," Aeron said. "I'll keep Renn out of trouble, too." 

Liana laughed and turned to Kara. "Keep them both out of trouble, and don't let them bully you." 

"Don't worry," the girl laughed back, "I'm very good to my beasts of burden." 

"That doesn't sound good," Renn noted. 

*** 

An hour later, Renn found out just how not good it sounded. 

Kara had dragged them to three separate vendors, each hawking odd bits of clothing. She selected various items with a critical eye, always sturdy garb in muted colors. Aeron returned from his own errands to find that Renn was now burdened with packages, while Kara stood inside a nearby shop, comparing different shawls. 

Aeron, Renn noted, was now almost as nondescript as he was. The Jedi wore simple trousers and a tunic unadorned by any ornamentation. His lightsaber was nowhere in view, but a large pouch with a datapad sticking out of it was. All in all, Renn would have taken the man for a poor scholar traveling the galaxy. 

"Not bad," Renn said. "Here." He dumped what he'd been forced to carry into Aeron's surprised grasp. "It's your turn for a while." 

Having passed his burden off, he found Kara inside the shop and came up beside her. He wasn't a good judge of women's clothing. Liana was the only female of any species he had spent any significant time with in the last few years, and, well, her people didn't really wear clothes. "You know, you can probably afford something nicer than this stuff," he said quietly, poking one of the plain garments she was looking at. 

She looked over at a display mannequin bedecked with some light, frilly fabric, then she turned her head sharply away. "It's not me," she said quickly. "I'd feel like a prize bovine trussed up for show." 

Renn followed her gaze and snorted. "You'd be surprised how easily people are impressed by nice clothes. Might not hurt to have some around, at least." 

Kara was about to reply when Renn's comlink beeped. He fished it out. "Yeah?" 

"The ship's ready to go," came Liana's voice. "Are you still shopping?" 

He glanced at Kara, and then at Aeron who was fumbling not to drop the top-most of Kara's bundles. "Yeah. Hey, did you return that speeder yet?" 

"Not yet. Do you need me to come meet you?" 

"Would be nice." 

His comlink clicked off with an 'on my way' from his partner. "Liana's bringing the speeder. Are you almost done?" he asked Kara. 

She was looking at a set of carved combs in a display case. "What? Oh, yeah, we're done." She paid for everything and went to relieve Aeron of the tottering parcels. 

"You two go on ahead and meet Liana," Renn said. "I have to look for some extra parts for the ship. It shouldn't take me long." 

*** 

Kara and Aeron stood outside the shops by the main street, waiting for Liana. "So, pardon my rudeness," Kara said, "but you seem a bit different today...." 

Aeron actually laughed. "Renn made a comment that made me think about something. It led to a chain of realizations." 

"Renn said something thought-provoking?" 

"Well, I once meditated over a pebble for three days. It didn't mean the pebble itself was intelligent," he replied with a wink. "Basically, Renn made me realize that the way I view people and events is not always the only correct way. Believe it or not, Kara, you actually guessed correctly. The Jedi Academy _didn't_ let me out much. I was brought up almost from birth by Masters who taught me that the only truth of the universe lies in Jedi lore. Now I see the narrowness of that idea." 

He looked around a bit guiltily as Liana's speeder approached. "But don't tell Renn that, all right? I may never live it down if he finds out." 

Liana pulled the speeder to a halt nearby and hopped out to help them load the packages. "I see you bought quite a bit," she remarked. "Where is Renn?" 

"Getting ship parts, he says," Kara responded. "Don't know where he got off to." 

Liana bared her teeth. "You don't sound as if you believe that." 

"No, I believe it. I just don't know where the scoundrel is. Maybe he's buying more droid actuators." 

"Why would he need more droid actuators?" Liana blinked. 

"To replace the ones he gave me as a joke," Aeron said. "As if I didn't know what my own lightsaber parts looked like." 

"You knew?" Kara asked. 

Aeron gave her a level gaze and made her laugh. 

Liana shook her head. "Yes, Renn is sometimes... ah...." 

"Dashing? Brilliant?" Renn asked, coming up on the other side of the speeder. 

"Late," Liana said, flicking her ears forward. 

"I just saw a broadband multi-phasic transponder at one of the junk shops and I thought it could be useful." All three of them blinked back at him. "Trust me, it's good." 

"I should have warned you not to let him loose around ship parts," Liana murmured, though her voice was warm and amused. 

*** 

The Wanderer climbed through the upper atmosphere and into space. It cruised at full sublight speeds until reaching a safe distance from Bhardesh. "Where to, Boss?" Renn asked, smirking, from the co-pilot's seat. He seemed to like that particular nickname, much to Liana's chagrin. 

"Out of the Bottleneck, at least," she said with a dark look in her partner's direction. "Has Gaman come through with any more information?" 

"No, and that makes me nervous." He started calculations for one of the planets just on the other side of the narrow hyperspace route. "Ready," he said after a moment. 

The stars blurred to thin lines as Liana sent her ship into hyperspace. She settled back into her chair. With no cargo, no new information, and no solid destination, she felt aimless for the first time in a long while. 

"Hey," Renn said quietly, "you look worried." 

"I am. I'm not certain where to go next." 

"If Gaman doesn't come through, there are other places. Naira owes me a favor too." 

She sighed. "Why does half the galaxy always seem to owe you favors, Renn?" 

It was a question she'd asked before, and they both knew she wasn't expecting any real answer. He just gave her that familiar half-smirking smile in return. She shook her head at him. "Let's see if we can't figure out where we're going." 

They found Kara and Aeron talking in the main hold. "I hope we're not interrupting something," Renn muttered, dropping onto the acceleration couch nearby. 

"Nothing galaxy-shaking," Kara said. She made room on the bench for Liana who sank down next to her. 

"I must admit," Liana said, "that I'm not sure what our next step should be. We don't have much more information about our pursuer now than we did when we set out." 

Aeron cleared his throat. "May I contact... Solara?" he asked. Renn smirked at the pause. "I will try to secure access to our archives. Maybe the Jedi have the information we need." 

"If your Masters will not object, that may be the best lead we have." Liana nodded. 

"Gaman's usually better than this," Renn mused. "He should have gotten us something by now." 

Liana looked grim. "It may be that his inquiries were noticed by the Sith." 

"I was trying not to think about that," said her partner, looking down at his hands. 

Kara opened her mouth to speak when the ship violently lurched and suddenly she was flying across the hold toward Renn. 

Renn caught hold of Kara's shoulders before she knocked him over, and muttered a few choice words, trying to get them both upright so he could get to the cockpit. 

"What the blazes?!" Aeron exclaimed, picking himself up from the floor. 

T5 sent a series of furious beeps over the intercom. The astromech droid was screaming about something. 

Liana's Trianii sense of balance kept her more-or-less upright through the ship's sudden rocking. She was out of her seat and moving of her own accord before any of the others had recovered. She stopped at the hold's security panel. "It's a Sith battleship," she growled. "They pulled us out of hyperspace." 

"How the hell did they find us so fast?" Renn demanded as he ran past her for the cockpit. 

"With our luck?" Kara asked, hot on his heels. 

"There's no such thing as luck," Aeron added darkly. 

Liana arrived in the cockpit to find Renn already poring over his console. "Damn it!" he swore. "They've got an Interdictor! That's what pulled us back to normal space. There are fighters all over the place." 

"Can you do that trick again?" Kara asked. 

"No good. These are the older manned models. I think this battleship is the one we snuck past at Derra IV. They've obviously learned." 

The ship jolted again, and Liana half-fell the final inches into her seat. She strapped herself in quickly. The Wanderer's engines whined a little as they tried to fight the sudden pull toward the Sith flagship. "They've locked a tractor beam onto us," she announced. 

"I'm firing up the turbolasers," Renn announced. "T5," he said into the intercom, "get to the turret!" 

The comm crackled to life, and a new voice flooded the cockpit. "Attention, Wanderer. This is the Sith Naval Vessel Dragon. You will stand down and prepare to be taken aboard, or you will be destroyed. Our arsenal has targeted you. Any sign of resistance and we will open fire. We are aware of your crew complement; if a single escape pod leaves your vessel it will be destroyed as well. This is your _only_ warning." 

"Like hell-" Renn began, but Liana cut him off. 

"Do it, Renn," she said, her ears back and her teeth bared. 

He stared at her. "We're just going to go quietly?!" 

"We have to. Alive, we can still do something." 

Renn deactivated the weapons systems, though it was obvious he didn't like it. Neither did she, but they had no other choice. 

A new voice came over the cockpit speaker, this one filled with anger. "Wanderer, this is Kirennan Venaar. You will release Lady Vanden at once. If you harm her in any way, you will wish we _had_ opened fire, is that clear?" 

"He makes it sound as if we kidnapped you," Liana growled. 

Renn reached over and closed the comm channel. "Yeah, I've heard about enough of this." He stood up. 

Liana grabbed his arm. "Where are you going?" 

"I can't sit here and watch this, Liana. You do realize they're gonna kill the rest of us as soon as they get us onboard? We're not what they want. We're disposable." 

Kara stood straight up. "That's it! Let me talk to Venaar." 

Aeron broke his stony silence. "Do not listen to him. He can twist you around his will like a sculptor's clay." 

"Oh, I won't listen. _He_ will." 

"Dragon," Liana said into the re-activated comm unit, "this is the Captain of the Wanderer. Please connect me to Venaar." 

"Yes, Captain?" the Sith Lord's voice came back. 

"Kara wishes to address you," she said simply and motioned for Kara to proceed. 

Renn seemed to figure it out then. He stared at Kara. "Kid, don't." 

"I have to," she replied softly. She looked away from him. 

"Lord Venaar," she said. "You want me, you can have me. On _my_ terms. You will let the others go. I will board an escape pod and launch it. You will then allow the Wanderer to leave. Interfere with it, or capture the pod before they go, and I will eat my own lightsaber. Do you understand?" 

A moment of silence passed. "Agreed. After we scan the pod and determine you are aboard, the Wanderer is free to go. We will, however, hold them in our tractor beam until your pod is clear. Further, you will bring with you all artifacts you recovered from Derra IV. I will know if you attempt to conceal it. Are we agreed?" 

"He slipped," Aeron whispered. "He wants one thing in particular. My guess, it is the holocron." 

Kara nodded. "Very well. Stand by, Dragon." 

Renn had stalked out of the cockpit before she'd even finished speaking. Liana closed the comm channel again. Her clawed hand was shaking as she did so. "We cannot allow you to sacrifice yourself for us, Kara." 

"You were right. You can do more alive. I can't let you all die for me." 

"You cannot let him have the knowledge he wants, not if it is as dire as your grandmother claimed." Liana looked toward the Jedi, hoping he would back her on this. 

Aeron nodded firmly. "If a Sith Lord wants it that badly, it must _not_ fall into his hands." 

"I won't allow it to," she spat back. "I'll destroy the holocron as soon as you're away. I assume it's vulnerable to a lightsaber?" 

"It is," he said simply. "Kara...." His voice choked off. There was nothing he could do. "May the Force be with you." 

Liana stood and laid her hand on the girl's shoulder. "We won't leave you there. We'll find a way to come back for you." 

Kara nodded. She looked like she was on the verge of tears, unable to speak. Covering Liana's hand with her own for a bare moment, she turned and left the cockpit. 

*** 

Kara just couldn't say anything to Liana. She knew that if she'd tried, she would have broken down and cried. 

She retrieved the holocron from the dormitory and was making her way to the escape pods when she found Renn literally blocking the narrow hallway. 

"Here," he said, without preamble, holding out a small capsule. "Swallow this." 

"I beg your pardon? We don't have time for this, Renn." She tried to push past him but he held firm. 

"It's a tracking beacon, one the Sith won't find and destroy if they scan for devices. It'll only transmit if we're actively looking for you. It's not long-term, but it's something." 

"Renn," she protested, eyes getting misty, "you and I both know this is one-way...." 

Renn's hand swooped in and pinched her nose. Her mouth opened in startled protest. He popped the tracker in and covered her mouth, too. 

Unable to breathe, Kara instinctively swallowed, and he let go. "That was really, really low, Renn," she gasped. 

"You can thank me later," he retorted. 

'No, damn it, not here in front of him!' she thought furiously, feeling the well-chasm of tears wanting to rip open. 

This time, when she tried to push past him, he let her go. 

*** 

"Captain," the sensor tech reported. "Escape pod jettisoned from the Wanderer. Female human life signs detected." 

Captain Hyridan nodded. He hated this, to be dictated to by a foolish _farm girl._ The shame of it was too much. He was tempted, so tempted, to order gunnery to reduce the Wanderer to sub-atomic particles. Only a cool hand on his shoulder prevented him. 

Lord Venaar said in a smooth whisper, "Do not mistake me, Captain. Kara Tao Vanden is vital to our plans. We must have her willing cooperation and, for that, I will endure her attitude. Soon enough, she will not resist." 

"Yes, My Lord," Hyridan responded. "When the pod is clear, release our tractor of the Wanderer. Has the Interdictor powered down?" 

"Yes, Captain, the freighter will be able to leave," the tech answered. 

The freighter soon jumped away in a flicker of pseudo-motion. "Lock onto the pod and bring it aboard," Hyridan ordered. 

"I will be in the hangar bay. Have all personnel not required for the recovery evacuate the area. I will greet our visitor alone." Venaar spoke from behind him. 

Why not? It made as much sense as the rest of this madness. "Yes, My Lord." 

*** 

Out the tiny viewport, Kara saw the Wanderer leave. Oddly, she felt her eyes go dry, whether out of fear or relief, it was hard to know. 

In the zero gravity of the pod, she let the holocron float free. She aimed the end of her lightsaber at it and fingered the activation stud. 

Nothing happened. 

She tried again. Still nothing. 

Now the fear came on in earnest. Through the Music she could hear a single note, a swelling more elemental than the universe itself. It came on through a rising, singular scale. 

No, it Sang. 

The note passed, leaving Kara feeling small as a grain of sand. 

Then the pod lurched. Venaar had her. He had the holocron, he had everything he wanted, and it was her fault. 

Leaving the lightsaber to float with the holocron, Kara wrapped her arms around herself and curled into a ball. 


	6. Venaar

The escape pod settled to the deck with a dull thud.

The vibration didn't penetrate to the panicked young girl within. Her heart was hammering far too loudly. She had failed, and now it was all about to end. Well, she had one chance, one final chance, to make things right.

She looked to the holocron, lifeless and inert. The Sith vessel's gravity held it on the floor of the pod. She couldn't destroy it. She'd tried, and failed. But the tool next to it, now that was another matter. She could use _that_ one, she hoped.

Hefting her lightsaber, she waited and hoped that _this_ time the blades would light. That whatever had caused the blades to remain inert had gone.

There came a light tapping, as if someone were knocking on the door of a house. She listened in the Music, but she heard no one. No Song of life in the entire bay.

Igniting both ends of her lightsaber, Kara exploded from the pod. She expected a horde of Sith troops. She expected to find the monsters who killed her parents. She expected to die.

She was totally unprepared to see a single, solitary man standing just out of striking distance.

She knew this man. His face was burned into her mind with more permanence than stone.

The man was breathtakingly handsome. His features were perfect, his frame tall and lithe, graceful as a waterfall and powerful as a bull. His robes were the color of rich wine and seeded with glittering gems about the yoke and shoulders. When he spoke, his voice was like cool shade after a hot day. "I am Kirennan Venaar. Welcome aboard the Dragon, Kara Tao Vanden."

"How do you know my name?" she demanded, confused that, in the Music, he was utterly, completely... silent. Everyone had a part in the Music, a Song they constantly Sang. Everyone, it seemed, except for Venaar.

"I have learned much about you recently," Venaar explained. He took a short half-step towards her and Kara flinched.

Venaar sighed and suddenly sank down in a low bow before her. "I am sorry we did not arrive sooner. My incompetence cost you greatly. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me for not preventing the death of your parents. I shall never forgive myself for the dereliction of my duty."

The fear gave way to boiling, frothing anger. Her lit blade blazed and she charged, weapon high for a killing stroke.

Venaar straightened, as if welcoming the fiery embrace of death.

Kara stopped, frozen stock-still by the gesture. Venaar exerted no power over her; she simply could not move.

She studied the man anew. He was crying, those perfect dark eyes streaming bitter tears across his face.

"Strike!" he hissed at her. "Kill me. It is your right. I have failed you, Lady Vanden."

"Lady?" she echoed weakly.

"You are the granddaughter of Selene Bladedancer. She who was Master to my own. She who he had sworn to protect, and I, in turn. She... who was his mother."

***

It seemed like forever before the Wanderer came out of hyperspace above the planet of Tenalp. Its crew seemed to be numb. None of them said a word until the ship dropped back to real space above the arid planet's surface.

Liana was the first to speak. "We have to find a way to free her."

"No," Aeron replied. "We should not."

She turned to stare at him. "We cannot just leave her there!"

Aeron's teeth ground together. "You do not understand the situation, do you? Assuming you could penetrate the Sith defenses and recover her, then what? Do you know what Sith do to their captives? Particularly if they are Force sensitive?"

"Then you would just abandon her to them?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"There is nothing of 'her' to save," he bit out through clenched teeth. "She went to them _willingly._ Don't you understand? If they have not killed her by now, they have reshaped her. They have destroyed the girl we knew and made her into a being of evil. You should pray, Liana, that she is dead. It would be a mercy."

Liana moved faster than either of them expected. One hand struck him across the face, her other hand tangled in the front of his tunic. "Then we are going without you, Jedi. But we _are_ going. I will not leave her."

Three thin lines of blood appeared on Aeron's cheek, testimony that Liana's claws were literally out. Aeron's voice was resigned, sad. "You will not know her when you find her."

She shoved him away in disgust. "I will not give up on her. She is one of us." Liana turned to look at her partner, expecting some disagreement, but Renn was surprisingly quiet through all of this. He seemed to be concentrating on his console, not looking in her direction. She knew better than that.

Liana growled under her breath. "We're landing. You can find passage there back to your Academy, Jedi."

Aeron nodded. "For whatever it is worth, I hope I am wrong. I hope you do find her."

Liana did not reply.

Soon, the ship touched down and Aeron, waiting by the gangplank, disembarked, a small bundle slung over his shoulder. He turned when he was clear of the ship and waved his farewell up to the cockpit. He could see Renn up there, and he saw clearly as the man turned away from him.

***

The darkness surrounded Kara. It choked her with airlessness, but still she held on. It tried to force its way past her defenses, and when she could hold out no longer, she retreated.

Pushing up, she broke the surface of the bath with a gasp.

Stunned by Venaar's revelation — if it was true — Kara had woodenly dropped her lightsaber and fallen to her haunches in a heap of confusion. Venaar had summoned a young female attendant and ordered her to see to Kara's comfort.

The young woman, Seni, stood near the sumptuous bathtub waiting for Kara's least request. Really, all she wanted was for the obvious watchdog to go away. "I can do this myself," she said in a tone of annoyance.

Seni bowed. "Begging your pardon, Lady Vanden, but Lord Venaar commanded me to see to your needs. He fears you may cause an... incident... due to misunderstanding your current situation."

"What misunderstanding? I'm a prisoner."

The young woman looked aghast. "No, Lady, surely not! You are not a prisoner, but an honored guest. You may leave at any time."

Kara snorted. Renn would have been proud.

"My Lord commands, as a gesture of good faith, that you keep these with you." She gestured to a shelf near the dressing rack, on which sat her lightsaber and the holocron.

Kara leapt up, streaming, from the tub, nearly slipping on the tile floor in the mad dash to recover them.

As she reached them, she felt a large towel, soft as breeze, draped about her as the attendant began to dry her.

Kara whirled on the woman, shoving her backwards. "Don't touch me!" she growled.

Mortified, Seni bowed low. "I am sorry, Lady. It... it is part of my duty to see to your comfort...."

Feeling surges of honesty and mortification roll off the woman in waves, Kara's tone mellowed. "I'm sorry for my overreaction. I was raised on a small farm. Such comforts... are totally alien to me." She set about drying herself and then wrapped the great sheet of cloth about her. "Where are my clothes?"

"Being cleaned. Lord Venaar commanded you be dressed as befits your station." The attendant motioned to a shimmering silken gown on the dressing rack. "He mentioned this specifically."

The dress was all sky-blue silk, shimmering with darker tones, and far, far beyond Kara's taste. "I, uh... no. Is there something... simpler?"

The attendant looked bemused. "I am afraid this is the plainest garment we have for a woman of such high station, Lady Vanden."

Damn.

She emerged half an hour later, devoutly hoping she did not trip over her own hem. Kara had worn dresses before, but only a handful of times in her life.

Seni escorted her to a chamber on the same deck. The door was flanked by two men in ceremonial armor. They came to stark attention as Kara drew near and then saluted her. One of the men punched a sequence into a keypad and the doors opened into a vast library.

"Hard to believe this is a warship," Kara breathed as Seni led her past rows of books, some obviously ancient.

"Lord Venaar is most learned," Seni responded. "He believes that we cannot avoid the mistakes of the past if we do not fully understand them."

Kara frowned. "And so all the killing and blood is for our brighter future, huh? What kind of future is purchased with lives?"

"The future has always been bought with the blood of the innocent," came a new voice. Venaar was seated at a large desk in a sort of circular court within his library. "I hope to end all that."

Again, the man's inner silence sucked at Kara's mind. Seni Sang an inner Song of life and loyal service, the guards outside Sang of pure devotion to their Lord, even the men she had killed in battle Sang harsh notes of anger and violence; but here, in the center of his power, the core of all evil sat silent as stone.

"The future I want for us all is not one of endless war, greed and ultimate destruction," Venaar said. "I serve the vision of order, peace and unity."

"Under your boot, of course," Kara added dryly.

Venaar laughed, a rich bubbling sound in the echoing vast room. "Hardly. The old ways are too ingrained in me, in the Sith, the Jedi. We have no place in the new utopia."

"So, you're telling me you _don't_ want to rule the galaxy?" Kara arched an eyebrow. "Somehow, I rather doubt your sincerity."

Seni gasped, but Venaar raised a hand. "No, Lady Vanden is correct to doubt me. She has no knowledge of us beyond what the Jedi agent poisoned her mind with."

"Agent?" Kara echoed.

"Yes. Aeron Rhade." Venaar actually sounded amused. "What lies has he told you of us?"

She went over in her mind everything Aeron had actually said about the Sith. It was a very short perusal. "Aeron didn't need to poison me against you. After all, your men killed my parents."

"No," he said flatly. "They did not."

Kara's lightsaber was in her hand and lit before even she was aware of it. The crimson tip burned bare millimeters from Venaar's throat, and yet the man did not flinch.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't burn you down right here and now."

"Because you do not know the reasons for this, the full story of Selene Bladedancer. What she found, and why the Jedi are desperate to control you."

"And you will tell me these things? Why should I believe anything you say?"

"Because you are still in a position to ask that question. Do you truly believe you would survive killing me here, in the core of my own flagship?"

Then, for just an instant, the Music swelled with a new voice, faint, as if fighting to be heard. A note struggled up from the depths, close and quiet, as though it were buried beneath her feet. It carried one, brief, desperate message.

Kill me! Strike!

It came from deep within Venaar, and then it was gone.

"Suppose I don't care?" she asked, flicking the blade just a hair closer.

Venaar shrugged. "Then you will die ignorant, and the universe will continue in darkness, forever."

Kara considered. "Speak then," she said finally, though the blade did not move.

"I will begin where the story does," Venaar said. "Selene Bladedancer was one of the few Jedi Masters to join Revan when she called for the Jedi to enter the Mandalorian Wars. When the Council refused, Revan went anyway, taking as many of her allies with her as would go.

"Selene and her Padawan, a young lad named Jhoral, were among them. The pair shared the deep secret that Selene was, in actuality, his mother."

Kara frowned. "Why did they keep that secret?"

Venaar sighed. "The Jedi, you see, forbid the taking of mates, or having families.... They divorce themselves from the very foundations of life. Selene introduced Jhoral to the Order as an orphaned boy she had encountered on her travels, but that was only the public face. When Selene left with Revan, Jhoral followed.

"They fought together through the Mandalorian wars," Venaar continued. "Here though, the story becomes murkier. At some point, the carnage began to turn Revan and those who'd followed her towards the dark path, towards the Sith. Selene came to her son during that time and said she feared the direction the war was taking, and what it could mean for the Jedi. It was then that Jhoral swore that he would follow and protect her from whatever came.... But it was not a promise he could keep.

"Selene was dispatched on an urgent mission by Revan herself. We have only rumors as to what occurred, but, though she survived the mission, she did not return to Revan's army."

"Where did she go instead, then?" Kara demanded.

"To Derra IV, though I did not learn that until recently. Whatever had occurred, it sucked the fighting spirit from her." Venaar shrugged as much as he dared with her blade at his throat. "Soon thereafter, the war ended. The Mandalorians were defeated at Malachor, and peace restored.

"Revan, along with most of her Jedi followers, retreated deep into the outer rim and were not heard from for a time. When they returned, Jhoral was still among their number, but Selene had remained behind.

"Jhoral rose through the Sith ranks, and in time, he took me on as his apprentice," Venaar explained. "I learned Selene's story from him over the years. I came to love my Master greatly. That is, I'm told, most unusual among the Sith." He smiled as if at a fond memory.

"After the eventual downfall of Revan and her apprentice, Malak, the Sith began to fight amongst themselves. My Master and I made a small world in the outer rim our home, and gathered what loyal forces we could.

"While we stayed out of the battle for control of the Sith, we managed to amass a sizable number of ships and soldiers. So it was inevitable, I suppose, that we were attacked anyway." He paused again.

'The memory is painful for him,' Kara realized, but still she kept her lightsaber trained on his throat.

"Several other Lords had banded together. They formed a death squad of over a hundred Force adepts and sent them to slay my Master and I. We were ambushed on our home world and, in the battle, Master Jhoral fell."

Venaar took in a breath and dropped his eyes to her blade as if to collect his thoughts. "I felt something unknown well up within me. When the power subsided, our enemies were quite literally ash. I rushed to Master Jhoral's side. He was still alive but barely. With his dying breath, he told me to open his secret chamber and read the journal therein." Tears flowed from his eyes.

"The journal," he said slowly, "was written by Selene. The early entries stated she had settled on a remote world, to protect something — something so powerful, she feared it could destroy the entire universe."

"And you seek it, do you?" Kara retorted.

"No. The Jedi do."

"Excuse me?"

"The Jedi have been in decline ever since the end of Revan's war with the Republic," Venaar explained. "Indeed, for quite some time, it appeared their fire had been truly extinguished. The remnants of the order still doggedly cling to existence, but soon they will fail, through attrition and natural death if nothing else. They seek this horrible power to restore themselves to glory."

"So to protect it, my parents had to die?!" Kara retorted.

"The Jedi sent an agent to find you, did they not? It wasn't until my spies within their order reported that a Jedi sought you, Bladedancer's kin, on Derra IV, that I realized the answer to the riddles of Selene's story."

"The Jedi killed my parents?" Kara asked. No, it didn't sound right. The Sith... the Sith had blockaded Derra IV, they had tried to have her killed. Aeron wasn't a murderer. Was he?

"I do not ask you to believe me," Venaar said. "As I told you, my own incompetence led to their deaths as much if I'd slain them myself. I deserve your anger, Lady Vanden, no more."

Kara's mind filled again with the confusing fog. No, it was a lie, a self-serving lie.... Or was it? She remembered the look on Aeron's face when he found her and Liana with the holocron. Was it concern for her welfare, or that she may learn the truth?

Her blade lowered and the crimson fire died. "I... I need time alone, to think."

"Of course," Venaar motioned to Seni. "Your attendant will show you to your quarters. We will speak again, Lady Vanden."

"Yes... yes, we will," she said woodenly, then left.

***

Even after they landed on the planet and the Jedi had disembarked, Renn hadn't ventured back to find Liana. She was too upset right now, too determined to find a way to rescue Kara.

Frankly, Renn agreed with the Jedi — something he was loathe to admit — but he knew better than to say as much to Liana right now. He'd given Kara the transmitter because he knew his partner would want to go after her. But there was no way they were going to be able to do this alone.

He sent an encrypted message to Gaman again. He needed to know if the man was still alive. If he was, his information network might be the key to finding a vulnerability in the Sith.

It didn't take long for the comm to chime, signaling a response. Renn hesitated. Either Gaman was still alive, or he'd just given whoever killed his contact a line back to the Wanderer. Finally, he opened the channel.

"Falani? I'm surprised you're still alive. What do you want?"

Renn frowned, forgetting his original request for moment. It was Gaman, but... there was something wrong with this. Cold realization made his stomach ache. "So, why'd you sell us out, Gaman?"

The voice sounded amused. "Your favor only covered the brandy, Falani. The Sith were paying well for information about your whereabouts. You've made me a rich man."

"You sent us into the Bottleneck so they'd be able to interdict us on the way out. You... backstabbing son of a schutta."

"You managed to escape, though, didn't you, Falani? I assume you must have, if you're still alive to curse at me."

Renn's fingers flew across the console, but of course Gaman's transmission was protected from even his best tracer programs. Bastard. "If I ever find out where you're hiding, you'd better run."

"Is that a threat, Falani?"

"No," Renn said coldly, "it's a promise." He cut the comm with a savage jab. No more favors. He couldn't trust anyone else, not in this.

The Wanderer's crew was on their own now.

***

Renn found Liana sitting on her bunk, staring at the other bed that had so recently been occupied. Kara had left what little she owned behind, as if she'd just stepped out and would be coming back at any moment. Her new clothing was still wrapped up in bags and bundles. He frowned at it.

"Liana?" Her ears flicked, so he knew she'd heard him, but she didn't answer right away.

"What if Aeron is right, Renn? What if the Sith hurt her so badly that she is broken?" she asked finally.

Renn hesitated before answering her. "Then we hurt them back."

"What did you find out?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"It was Gaman. He sold us out to the Sith."

After her reaction to Aeron, he'd been expecting an explosion. Liana's calmness almost frightened him more. "I'm not surprised." She paused, then said, "We're truly alone in this, aren't we, Renn? Even the Jedi has given up."

"It's never stopped us before. It might be tougher without a Jedi backing us up, but we'll figure something out."

"You agree with him, don't you?"

Renn sighed. "I don't want to leave her there any more than you do, but frankly, we don't have the firepower to take on a single Sith cruiser by ourselves, not to mention the nightmare it'll be if it rejoins the fleet from Derra IV. Hell, we'd need a few dozen Republic warships just to get close...." His voice trailed off.

"Renn?"

He barely heard her. "Oh. That might work."

"You have a plan?"

"I might, but I need to test a theory first," he answered her, distracted by the direction in which his mind was already racing. "We're only gonna get one shot at the real thing, so I need to be sure."

***

Kara awoke to sumptuous smells wafting through her chamber from a tray on a nearby table. At first, she wanted to resist the aroma, ignore the rumblings of hunger within her, but finally she gave in. Rising from the bed, she lifted the lid of the tray to find fruit, cheeses and some sort of prepared egg dish, in addition to a decanter of juice and something she suspected was a type of tea.

She devoured it quickly.

Seni entered as she was finishing the tea. It made her feel a bit tingly as it washed her breakfast down.

"My Lady?" Seni asked tentatively. "Lord Venaar asks if you are ready to receive him?"

Kara froze. The revelations of the previous day still swam in her mind as well as a feeling of... what? Anticipation?

She shrugged a plain robe on over her shoulders. "I suppose I must." Barefoot, she padded out of the bedchamber.

Venaar stood respectfully with his back turned to her, examining a tapestry that hung in the main room. It depicted in great detail a titanic beast, whose wings blotted the sun from a strange world's sky.

"You wanted to see me?" Kara asked. Venaar turned smoothly.

"Yes, Lady Vanden. Are these chambers to your liking? Is there anything we can do to make your stay with us more pleasant?"

"You could let me go?" she suggested.

"Ah, no. I'm afraid that letting you go in the middle of hyperspace is not conducive to your survival. When we arrive at our destination, however, you are free to go where you will."

"As long as I leave you the holocron," she remarked acidly.

Venaar laughed. "You really must shed these doubts about us. The holocron is yours. You can take it with you if you wish. While I admit I would prefer that it and you remain in our protective custody, I will not force you to do so."

Kara's eyes narrowed. "Protective, eh?"

"Of course. If you choose to leave us, you are free to do so. However, the Jedi are still pursuing you, and I doubt you will find one of their 'Academies' as easy to depart."

"You really expect me to believe that, do you?"

"Believe as you like. Go ahead, view me through the Force. Do I lie? Do you detect the slightest hint of deceit?"

"From you, I hear nothing."

"Hear?"

"I was not trained in the normal way, I guess. I was raised to always listen to the Music, the Song sung by all life. I hear nothing whatsoever from you. You are silent, and it scares me," she admitted.

Venaar looked insightful. "Yes... Music. A most apt analogy. Thank you for sharing it with me. As for my silence, as you put it, that is easily explained. I have gone far into what the Jedi call the Dark Side of the Force. I keep myself under firmest control at all times."

"Control?"

Venaar sighed. He motioned Kara to a comfortable looking divan and settled himself into a chair near it. "The differences between the Sith and the Jedi began in philosophical terms only. The Jedi believe themselves to be selfless. They focus outward, denying their own passions. The Sith focus inward, upon controlling and using our inner fires."

When Kara didn't comment, Venaar continued. "It was believed that, in time, we could conquer our own inner darkness and find a still center, a place where we had access to all the Force has to offer, and would not be swayed by the mortal failings that doom so many." He leaned forward and captured her eyes. "I am the first to accomplish it."

Kara's eyebrow lifted to underline her skepticism, but she changed the subject. "You want me to believe you? Then you have to explain a few more things."

"Very well, ask," he responded evenly.

"First, why did you kill Daj?"

Venaar's brows crashed together. "Daj? Oh! The person who let your ship launch at Derra IV? I did not kill him. He was alive and well when I left him."

"He's dead now," she said.

Venaar's face grew troubled. "I swear to you, I only looked into his mind for information about your vessel. I did nothing that would harm him. There were no drugs used, nor did we employ torture. Both practices are forbidden. Beyond the fact that they are cruel, they also tend to yield false information." He paused. "Lady Vanden, forgive the impertinence, but are you sure he is dead?"

"One of my companions was informed of his death."

"I see. Could they... forgive me, but could they be lying? Or, let me be kinder; could they have been lied to?"

She thought of Renn. No, the news had disturbed him too much. He wasn't lying. Gaman however.... Renn's contacts were shady at best. It was possible. Particularly if Gaman had later sold them out, as seemed only likely.

"Possibly," she admitted. "I believe the source of the information was pursuing the bounty you put on my head."

"I do not use bounty hunters," Venaar returned icily. "Those scum have no place in my organization."

"And yet we were attacked by a person who had proof an enormous bounty was placed on our ship and everyone aboard."

Venaar shot to his feet and reached into his sleeve for a small comlink. "Captain Hyridan, is there a bounty placed upon Lady Vanden or the ship she was a passenger on?"

Now, just a slight flicker of Song leaked through Venaar's lauded control. A note of fiery, deadly, anger.

A moment later and his comlink responded, "Yes, my Lord. Intelligence had one posted after their escape on Derra IV."

"Captain," Venaar's voice was deadly calm, "would both you and the head of the Intelligence section report to the guest quarters at once?"

"On our way, sir," the voice responded, then the connection was broken.

"I will get to the bottom of this at once, Lady. My abject and humblest apologies if this is the case. My predecessors may have operated in this manner, but I flatly refuse to."

A moment later, an older man and a middle-aged woman, both in stark military uniforms, were admitted to the chamber.

"Commander," Venaar addressed the woman, "explain to my honored guest and I why you placed a bounty on her head?"

"My Lord?" she responded, confused.

"This is the Lady Kara Tao Vanden," Venaar explained. "You placed a bounty on her. Who ordered you to do so?"

"No one, My Lord. I just assumed when they escaped we would follow established protocol and spread as wide a net as possible to find them."

"Captain Hyridan," Venaar turned to the older man, "as of right now, bounty hunters are not to be employed by our military in any capacity whatsoever, is that understood? Any outstanding bounties we offer are to be canceled."

"Yes, Lord," he saluted.

"Commander," Venaar continued, "contact your second. You are hereby relieved of duty, pending reassignment."

The woman looked about to argue, but then saluted as well. "As you command, Lord."

"Dismissed," he said coldly.

They turned smartly, and left.

Venaar's shoulders sagged as the door shut. "Again, Lady Vanden, my apologies. I find myself in the position of having to countermand orders given by men who have been dead for years. The task of reaffirming positive discipline has been enormous."

Kara decided to move on, press him while he seemed off-balance. "All right, the big question: why do I still have the holocron?"

Venaar flashed a heart-melting smile. "I suppose the you could say that it is a sign of good faith. I am asking a lot of you. The least I can do is show my trust in you."

"You trust me?"

"Of course." He returned to his study of the tapestry. "What's more, you are Selene's direct descendant. It should be yours by right. While I would be happy to keep it safe for you, we both know it will only function in _your_ hands, not mine."

Kara was silent a long while. Finally, she said, "You've told me much, but still, assuming I believe you, why do you care? Why not simply take the holocron and be done with it?"

"Beyond the fact that I do not want the Jedi securing whatever power Selene found, I am bound by the oath of my Master. You are of Selene's line. It is my duty to protect you, whether you believe me or not."

"Protect me?" she echoed.

"Yes. I failed to save your mother and father. I bitterly regret that." Coming to her divan, he sank to one knee and stared hard into her eyes. "I will not fail in my duty again, Lady."

Kara felt the depthless pools of his dark eyes pulling at her, and slowly, inexorably, she felt herself giving way. "But why...?"

"I know the story of your past," he interrupted her. "Please, let me show you the way to your future."

Something in her rebelled, something fought for one second to stem the tide she felt pulling her away, but then it dissolved. Lost in the fog, she breathed a single word, "Yes."

Venaar smiled and leaned towards her. His lips were cool against hers, and though she didn't care, a solitary singer wept gently for her beneath layers of unfathomable silence.

***

"What is this?" Liana asked curiously, crouching down beside Renn, who was tinkering with something on the floor of the main hold. T5 rolled over and dropped a part beside him. The device he was working on was a vaguely-oval-shaped capsule that looked almost like a miniature escape pod. Liana was a good pilot, and she knew enough about ships and computers to make impromptu repairs and run diagnostics on her ship, but Renn... sometimes Renn operated at a level she could barely fathom.

"Well, in theory, with this transmitter relay," he held up the part that the droid had brought him, "this little thing ought to be able to spoof the transmission signals of a Republic warship." When Liana blinked, Renn continued. "We drop a bunch of these far enough out that they can't be seen, and, hopefully, the Sith will be so busy scrambling to defend against the incoming invasion that we can slip in."

She touched the device, intrigued. "What is to stop them from just jumping out ahead of this fake fleet of yours?"

"We put them right in their way. They won't be able to jump to hyperspace if they think the way's blocked."

Liana nodded. "And do you think they will just allow us to get close enough to dock?"

Renn smirked at her. "They will if they think we're one of their supply freighters, trying to escape Republic pursuit."

"When we get aboard?"

"Well...." His expression grew grim. "That's where my brilliant plan falls apart. We'll have to hope we get real lucky or this might be the shortest run we ever make."

***

Kara and Venaar sat at a small table within Venaar's cavernous library. As had become her custom these past few days, Kara's lightsaber was clipped to an elaborate belt that didn't look too out of place with the new blue silken gown she’d been given that day, even if the weapon itself did. On the other side of the belt was a pouch where the holocron rode.

"The problem with the Sith over the past decades," Venaar was explaining, "is that they were ruled by people with weak minds. Even the great Revan, I fear, could not find the center. She could not get past the inner turmoil that is the core of the so-called 'Dark Side.' Of course, Revan's destiny was to be a tragic one. Did you ever hear the story of her disappearance and the end of the Jedi Civil War?"

Kara enjoyed the rich timbre of his voice; she could listen to him for hours. "No," she replied. "All I knew was that the Republic defeated the Sith after being driven to the brink themselves."

Venaar nodded. "That is the basic gist, yes. The truth is far more interesting. Revan, you see, had severed all ties with the Jedi when she left to fight in the Mandalorian Wars. With her went several Jedi. This you know. Revan was not the first Sith Lord, but she took the remains of her command after the war and reformed them, along with new war material from a then-unknown source, under the banner of the Sith.

"The new Sith military easily stormed across the still war-torn Republic. Finally, in desperation, a Jedi death squad was sent to kill Revan. Unfortunately, Revan's apprentice, Malak, chose the moment of his Master's battle with the Jedi to turn on Revan. He obliterated her flagship, killing her... or so he thought."

Kara smiled dreamily, lost in the tale.

"Revan was only injured, and the surviving members of the Jedi attackers took her back to a Jedi Academy on Dantooine. There, Revan underwent horrific torture. Oh, they repaired her body, but they also destroyed her mind. They unmade her at the most basic level and reconstructed her as they saw fit." Venaar reached over and covered her hand with his. "I fear it is the same fate that awaits you, if you should fall into Jedi custody. That is why I wish you would remain with us, but I digress."

Kara's eyes grew a bit wide, a bit fearful, but then she remembered where she was, who she was with, and relaxed. "Please, continue your tale."

"Revan, under the guise of a false identity, was cleverly re-led along her early path by a Jedi overseer, Bastila Shan. Bastila was to ensure that Revan's true identity did not re-emerge, and kill her if it did."

"Why? Why not just imprison or destroy her outright?" she asked.

Venaar chuckled. "Remember, the Jedi and Republic were nearing defeat, and the Sith seemed to have unlimited numbers of ships, weapons and war droids. The Jedi hoped to identify that source and destroy it. If she was successful, we do not know. All that is certain is that the war ended soon thereafter and the Republic was victorious. But Revan, well.... The generous say she disappeared, fled into the Unknown Regions, but I say rather that she was killed, to ensure that the Dark Lord did not resurface."

Kara's face grew thoughtful, she dropped her eyes from his and looked instead to the holocron in its pouch. "And the Jedi intend the same for me, you say?"

"I am certain of it," he replied levelly.

"It sounds worse than death. I don't want...." Tears formed in her eyes. "I don't want to die. I don't want my mind destroyed."

He rose and took her shaking frame in his arms. "You are safe, Lady. I will protect you. I will always protect you."

"But I don't want to be a prisoner either," she said. "I don't want to live forever with them lurking just beyond my vision. How can I be rid of them?"

"There is a way, but it may be worse."

She brought her face up to his, bare inches away. "How?"

He released her, but his hands moved to her shoulders. "Use the holocron."

Kara recoiled. "But the holocron says the power is too dangerous to use."

Venaar smiled. "I do not want to use it. I want to deny it to the Jedi. I will destroy it to keep it from their hands, but to do so, we must understand it first."

She looked unsure.

"The first axiom of Sith lore is that power understood is power controlled. Power denied for the sake of misunderstanding is all the more dangerous."

Kara objected, "But...."

"You asked how best to remove the Jedi interest in you. If you choose not take that path, you can remain here forever. I will keep you safe as this ship moves from system to system, one step ahead of their menace."

Spend her entire life on this ship? Unbidden, a memory of the snow-capped mountains, the green fields and the bright, warm sunshine of home filled her mind. How long had it been since she had even seen a blade of grass?

No, she couldn't endure it. The existence he offered was as much death to her as what the Jedi offered. But she couldn't keep such a secret with her and run and hide elsewhere. The Jedi found her on Derra IV, they could find her anywhere....

"Yes," she said in barely a whisper. "Yes, I will use the holocron."

***

Venaar led Kara into a softly lit chamber. It was a small room, but it reminded Kara of a museum, with various artifacts standing about in glass cases.

"These were all Selene's or my Master's," Venaar explained. "I hoped to learn more about them through items they deemed important. I come here often to meditate and draw strength from their presences." His face grew regretful. "I can almost feel Master Jhoral near me when I am here. I thought it might be more conducive."

Kara nodded and looked about her. A pair of perfectly matched gleaming crystals caught her eye. Next to them stood a suit of golden battle armor.

"Those were Selene's," Venaar explained. "The armor was a gift from a Mandalorian general who thought her a worthy foe. The crystals... they are the most intriguing item here. They are the original core of her lightsaber.

"Some Force users, it is said, bond with their core crystals in a deep and not completely understood manner. Selene was one such person. It is part of why she was so gifted with the blade. However, she abandoned her cores during the Mandalorian Wars. You carry her weapon, but the cores are different. Why she did so is just another of her many mysteries."

Kara nodded. Something... something about the core crystals called to her. She felt some strange connection running between them and her, something she could not explain.

"Very well, shall we begin?" Venaar asked.

With great effort, Kara tore her attention from the display cases. She knelt in the center of the room, Venaar settling across from her, and took out the holocron.

The small pyramidal crystal felt hot and heavy in her hand. She set it in the center of the circle described by her and Venaar, and focused her will upon it. The Music swelled and roiled, sinking deep into the stone.

Almost immediately, it glowed crimson, and the presence of Selene erupted from it. She took one pitying look at Kara, but then her eyes grew wide and she whirled to find Venaar looking greedily at her.

"So, you have her, do you, Avatar?" Selene asked Venaar. "It has come to this?"

Kara felt her will freeze. She could no longer speak, she could no longer fight, or stop fighting. Everything that she was became crystalline.

"I seek to endure, Caretaker," Venaar said, in a voice oddly not his own. It sounded deep, dark, like the rumble of a ground quake beneath one's feet.

"Do you?" Selene answered. "You seek to thrive, I fear."

"Blast you, foul shade! Give unto me your key and begone with you!" it roared back.

"You seek the means to open the gateway, do you?" Selene smiled then, a small, knowing smile. She glanced fondly at Kara, and then her face grew stern. She spread her ghostly arms wide and opened herself to Venaar. "Then strike. Bite hard and true, Avatar."

Claws of pure shadow stuff, tongues of black fire, leapt from Venaar's body and tore into Selene's ghost.

Kara gasped as a flood of images and feelings flowed into her. Venaar's face grew ecstatic, as though he glimpsed the countenance of the universe and it smiled on him.

When finally it faded, the fog in Kara's mind whipped away like scudding clouds. It was over, and now she crumpled and lay there, defeated and broken.

She was only vaguely aware of Venaar's cry of glee and his rapid departure. Dimly, she saw that the holocron was now a twisted, molten mess before her.

All was lost.

***

Light years away, on the planet Solara, Aeron Rhade started up from deep meditation. He felt the stab of pain, the echoing hollowness of despair. He crumpled and wept.

***

The knowledge that every moment they spent on Tenalp was another that Kara was at the mercy of the Sith made them work quickly, but Renn still needed time to build and test his devices.

While her partner was busy, Liana did not sit idle. She went out into the shipyards of Tenalp and purchased the newest — albeit temporary — addition to their ship: a pair of detachable cargo containers that, when affixed to the sides of the Wanderer, helped to disguise the ship's form.

She then had a fresh coat of paint applied to the ship's battered hull. These precautions, added to the ship's ID change, should be enough to keep them from being recognized visually.

Her preparations completed, Liana stood gazing at the ship's new, unfamiliar shape. Suddenly, she felt a surge of sadness come over her. Without knowing quite why, she staggered up the ramp and fell into a seat in the darkened cockpit. There, she buried her face in her hands and tried to keep the feelings of desperation at bay.

***

Slowly, perception returned to Kara. She was aware she was lying on the floor of the museum chamber. She smelled the crisp acrid stink of the remains of the holocron and sat up.

For the first time in days, the swirling mist that held her mind had fled. She was herself now, and she wept at what she had done. She had believed him. She had surrendered all she was to him, and done so gladly.

Kara fell to one side and retched violently. She had failed. Failed her parents, failed her friends, failed herself.

It was then that she heard the faint whisper of Music. A sweet crystalline note of pure, bright light. It drew her to her feet. It pulled her across the room, and it brought her hand to her weapon, which smashed the glass case containing the two core crystals.

Yes, she Sang back to them. I have not lost everything, yet. There is still a chance. We shall take that chance. We will seize it, together.

A few moments of simple work later and she felt ready, but something still nagged at her. She considered the other case, containing Selene's golden armor, and grinned.

***

The door to the Museum opened and the two guards looked into the darkness. Suddenly, two spars of golden light erupted and pierced them.

Others charged into the hallway and a figure armored in gold, wielding blades of pure sun-fire, fell on them with dreadful efficiency.

The figure was not Kara Tao Vanden, or at least, not entirely her. Some vestige of Selene strode with her now. Some hitherto unknown part of her had found a home within Kara's soul, along with the memories of her parents, of Renn, Liana and even Aeron.

The figure walked slowly, with purpose and clarity, towards the core of the ship.

***

Wracking sobs turned to blazing, brilliant fire.

Aeron Rhade fell again, this time in stunned wonder. It was clear; it was all so blessedly clear.

Shooting to his feet, he sought a comm station within the Academy. There he punched in the tracking code for the Wanderer, beginning with the systems around Tenalp.

***

Liana looked up as the console alerted her to an incoming message. Who could be contacting them now? Could it be...?

She stretched for the button. "This is the Wanderer," she said cautiously.

"Liana!" The voice at the other end was garbled, but undoubtedly Aeron. "Before you cut the connection, listen to me. I was wrong. If you are planning anything in the way of a rescue... now is the time."

"Are you sure?" she asked quietly. She heard Renn come into the cockpit and looked over her shoulder at him. From his expression, he'd heard the message.

"Am I sure? Kara sent a wave of presence through the Force so powerful that every Force sensitive person here has a migraine. Whatever Venaar did to her, she threw it off."

"We're ready enough," Renn said. "I just need to get her signal on the tracker."

Liana nodded to her partner, who slipped into his chair to activate the tracking device he'd placed on Kara.

"Got it," Renn said, starting to program a hyperspace vector into the navicomputer. "Hey, Jedi, you coming to the party?"

"I have a ship prepping now. Where is she?"

Liana shook her head. "You're too far away," Renn said aloud. "If we don't get her out, I doubt the Sith will stay where they are long enough for you to arrive."

Aeron's sigh of resignation was clear through the speaker.

"We will send you the frequency for our tracking device," Liana said. Renn looked like he was going to protest, but he backed down at her expression. "If we don't succeed, you must find her."

"I won't fail you," he promised. "May the Force be with both of you, and Kara."

***

Lord Venaar strode onto the Dragon's bridge as the report came in.

"My Lord," Captain Hyridan began. "Lady Vanden is slaughtering her way towards the docking bay. The security cam footage shows she is wearing the battle armor from your museum and is wielding a golden lightsaber."

Venaar was taken aback. His first reaction was to confront her, to end the charade and simply dispatch her with minimal loss to the crew, but something stayed his hand. He remained rooted to the spot. No, the time was not right for that encounter.

"Captain," he said crisply, "evacuate all personnel from the sections between Lady Vanden and the landing bay. Instruct the Elite Guard to engage her, but from a distance. Do not close with her. If she reaches the landing bay, she is to be allowed to leave the ship. Is that clear?"

The look of confusion on Hyridan's face showed it was not, but the man obeyed without question or hesitation.

Suddenly, the Dragon lurched and reverted to real space. Alarms blared and techs scrambled to gather data.

"Report!" Hyridan bellowed.

"Captain! Sensor contact!" a tech reported. "It looks like a large Republic fleet directly in our hyperspace vector!"

"Damn, they must have known our vector somehow...." Hyridan muttered. "Tactical! I want readings on all the warships now!"

"Too much jamming," the original tech cut in. "All our sensors are fuzzy and the comm system is totally jammed. The emergency transponder scanners are all that kept us from colliding at light speed."

Navicomputers on hyperspace capable ships could take into account all natural factors that would impact faster-than-light travel. What they couldn't possibly predict were artificial reasons; namely, other ships in one's flight plan. That was why navicomputers were tied to scanners that would detect the ID transponders of other ships, plot their positions and if a collision was imminent, drop the ship from hyperspace.

Of course, less noble travelers would use this fact to their advantage. The tactic had become known as 'Pirate's Interdiction.'

"They'll be on us before we can compute a new course," Venaar mused.

"Launch fighters! All crew to battle stations!" Hyridan thundered.

***

This... now this was going to be the tricky part, Renn thought, watching from the Wanderer's position behind the larger ship as fighters shot from the Dragon's bay. They were going to have a very limited window to slip in; as soon as the fighters found his decoys, that was going to be the end of the deception.

Liana kept the ship on a direct course for the Dragon, but moving slowly until the fighters had launched. As the smaller ships shot off in the direction of the alleged Republic fleet, the Wanderer's Captain poured on the speed.

They both watched the Dragon get closer through the viewport. Liana aimed straight for the landing bay as the ship accelerated. A couple of fighters seemed to notice them, but the Wanderer was past them before anyone could react. As they got closer to the gaping maw of the bay, Renn reached over his head and ejected the extraneous cargo pods. They were just dead weight, especially with the little surprise he'd packed in them, and they'd serve as an extra decoy for now.

Renn's eyes locked straight ahead and he braced himself in his seat. He fancied that he could see individual deck hands diving for cover now.

"Make a hole, boys, we're comin' through," he muttered.

***

Kara had cut her way clear all the way to the hangar bay. There seemed to be remarkably few people about. Aside from the armored Elite Sith troopers, the corridors were deserted.

It wasn't until she burst through the final set of blast doors onto the flight deck that she realized the foolishness of her tactic. She couldn't fly a ship. She'd need to secure a pilot.

Berating herself, Kara cast about for anyone who looked even remotely like they could be a pilot. People scattered from her path like seeds in the wind, when suddenly an immense roar announced a ship forcing its way into the bay from space.

Kara spun, and gaped.

No.

It just was _not_ possible....

With a whoop of joy, she tore off towards the Wanderer.

The freighter careened into the bay and made a spectacular dent in the rearward wall. The ship's obviously new paint job was now completely trashed and there were more than a few blaster burns decorating her hull, Kara noticed as she ran and pounded on the hatch.

The gateway to salvation swung open before her and she sprinted up it so fast she surprised the alarmingly armed T5 coming down it.

Hauling the droid along behind her, Kara halted at the main hold intercom and slapped the talk button. "Liana! Renn! I'm on. _Go!"_

***

Liana's Trianii reflexes got the ship turned around quickly, as soon as she heard Kara's voice over the intercom. "Aeron was right. She must have been waiting for us."

"Hold on, Captain, we got their attention," Renn announced as the Wanderer sped back the way she'd come. A few turbolaser near-misses underscored his remark. "I think they've discovered the transmitters."

"We're far enough away," Liana announced.

Renn gave her a triumphant little grin. "I hope they like their present." He targeted the cargo containers they'd jettisoned with the pivoting turbolaser battery atop the Wanderer's hull, and fired.

The first pod, and its cargo of liquid fuel, exploded in a fireball that quickly consumed the second. Not waiting around to see the extent of the destruction, the Wanderer rocketed away into hyperspace, leaving the fiery wreckage to send its own message to the Sith.

***

On the bridge of the Dragon, all was sheer chaos. The Sith fighters were reporting negative contact with the ships their scanners said had to be there. The rampage of Kara Tao Vanden had ended with untold losses. The Dragon's docking bay had been penetrated by a rogue ship that appeared from nowhere, and left in a fireball, severely damaging the bay.

Through it all, Captain Hyridan watched Lord Venaar out of the corner of his eye, remembering the fate of those who failed Malak and Revan before him.

But Venaar showed no outward emotion. He merely turned on his heel and calmly left the bridge, pausing only to tell Hyridan that he would be in the library and to set course to Derra IV.

The Sith naval officer watched his Lord leave and found his hand trembling as he reached to wipe his brow.

***

Kara had collapsed into herself following the Wanderer's departure from the Dragon, shedding the helmet of Selene's golden armor, which made a ringing thud on the durasteel plating of the ship's hold. She felt a lurch as the ship safely entered hyperspace and fell against the wall for support. She was safe; they were away.

Liana and Renn found her like that when they came back to the hold not long after.

Kara looked up as they approached. She saw their faces and felt something give. She dropped her deactivated lightsaber and staggered towards them. Without a word, she collapsed against Renn's chest and started to cry.

Renn made a startled sound as he found himself suddenly supporting Kara's armored weight, not to mention a crying girl. Hesitantly, as if he wasn't sure what to do, he put his arms around her. Liana came over and laid her hand on Kara's head, stroking her hair in a gentle petting motion.

None of them spoke for a long while. Then, finally, Renn said, "Don't you ever make us do something like that again, Kara."

She blinked. It was the first time he'd ever called her by name. Not "kid" or "farm girl", but her name. No one called her that anymore except the people here.

Here, now, in the warm presence of these two, she was safe. They had come through fire and death for her, because they knew she would do the same for them. Because this was something far more important than camaraderie.

This was family; this was home.


	7. Choices

The crew of the Wanderer clustered around their lost lamb.

The storm of Kara's weeping had finally slowed and stopped, but she still stood sheltered within Renn's arms and didn't seem inclined to move.

Finally, Renn's weight shifted. "Kara. Armor. Ow."

She snapped back to her own feet, hands flying to her mouth as she realized what she'd been doing. "I didn't hurt you, did I, Renn?"

"I'll have a few interesting bruises," he muttered.

"Come." Liana took Kara's arm. "Let's get you out of that and into something less... defensive?" she suggested with a smile.

Liana led her back to their room to help the girl out of the rather impressive golden armor. She was glad to see Kara didn't seem physically harmed, at least, outside of some bruises. "Are you sure you don't need to go to the medbay?" she asked again. She suspected she might be 'hovering,' as Renn called it, but it was only her worry for the girl.

"I'm just sore, Liana. I'll be fine." The breastplate and greaves removed, Kara unzipped the bodysuit to which the bracers and lower leg armor were attached. A rumpled blue silk gown drooped dispiritedly underneath. It had been bunched up around Kara's waist.

The girl seemed to consider the abused finery. "Don't tell Renn about this, okay? I don't want him to tease me about it."

Liana blinked. "Why would he tease you about a dress?" She laid the armor carefully on the unused bunk. She wanted to ask about it, about what had happened to her aboard the Sith ship, but thought better of it. Kara would tell them in her own time.

"It's a long story," Kara said, stripping the dress off and dropping it carelessly. She went to dig some of the clothes she'd bought recently out of their bundles when she paused. From the pile of articles, Liana saw her pick up a small box of ornately carved hair combs.

Kara stood there a long moment before setting it back down with a soft caress. "Jerk," she said fondly.

Liana was now thoroughly confused. "Kara?" she asked. "What is it?"

"That's a longer story," was all Kara would say.

***

Kara and Liana made their way back to the cockpit. Kara was now garbed in a sleek grey ship suit and tunic, her hair held back by one of the large wooden combs.

"Renn?" she asked. "Is there any chance of contacting Aeron before he mounts the most useless rescue in history?"

Renn looked up at her, and flashed her his little half-smirk. "Who're we to stop him from doing something stupid?" he asked. But his hands were already at work on his console, trying to raise the Jedi Academy on the comm.

Soon the anxious face of the Jedi appeared on screen. "Kara! Thank the Force you're alive!"

Renn snorted. "Yeah, we had _nothing_ to do with it...."

Kara ignored that. "Aeron, listen... I need to speak to your Masters, right away. I'm going to ask them some questions, and they have to be completely, totally honest with me, all right? No philosophy. Fact."

Taken aback, he nodded. "Give me a moment." His signal faded to standby, then returned, split by five other, smaller images. One elderly man, a woman perhaps twice Kara's age, and three beings so old and withered that neither their species nor gender could be ascertained.

One of them, the man, spoke. "Ask your questions of us, Bladedancer's kin."

"Did you send Aeron to kill me, or do me harm in any circumstance?" she demanded.

Aeron protested, but Kara wasn't paying attention to him. The outraged shock of the Masters echoed through the Music. The ring of truth echoed in their denials.

"Good," Kara continued. "Are you actively trying to secure Selene's legacy?"

This was greeted with sporadic burst of unease. "We are only interested in your training as a Jedi," the woman finally said. Atonal blandishments of falsehood rang for her inner ear alone.

"Lastly, if I reject your training, what do you plan for me?" she demanded.

"We would allow you to go your own path," the same Master said gravely. It was a bitter, bald-faced lie. The harsh screech of untruth was very nearly deafening.

Now she was faced with a dilemma. Did she dare tell people she knew she could not trust with the information? Did she have any other choice?

No, she did not.

"Hear this," she said sternly. "Venaar took what he wanted from me. He knows what Selene found and how to access it. I believe he means to. He's headed back to Derra IV and if he succeeds...."

"What is there?" Aeron asked.

"Everything has a balancing opposite. Matter and energy, light and dark, heat and cold, life... and death. Venaar is trying to unleash something that is the opposite of the Music-" She shook her head. "-of the Force. If he succeeds, he will kill every living thing in the universe."

Liana sat down heavily in her chair, her ears flat back against her head. Even Renn was quiet for a change, his expression unreadable, his eyes dark. Kara's words seemed to hang in the air of the cockpit like a weight. They both had to know what she intended.

"What would you have us do, girl?" the female Master responded. "There is no such disturbance in the Force, no sign of what you describe," she scoffed. "The only real danger is you. We all felt the awakening of your power. You are an avalanche of Force presence. You must be controlled, for the good of us all."

"I've brought you warning," Kara responded evenly. "What you do with it is your affair. Renn, cut the channel."

The comm cut off just as the elderly Jedi was beginning to protest.

"So," Renn said, "not satisfied with one Sith cruiser, you want us to take on the entire fleet? Remind me never to loan you money. You like bad odds."

Her eyes flashed angrily at first, but quickly softened. She reached over and laid a hand on his shoulder, looking at anything except either of them. "I have to get to the Gateway before Venaar does, or at least, before he can open it."

"The what?" Renn asked.

Kara sighed and fell into one of the vacant cockpit seats. "Selene found... I guess you could call it a hole in the Music. A spot where there's something that shouldn't be here. Through this hole, something's been leaking into our universe, something that is the opposite of the Music, the Force, whatever you want to call it. It's been storing itself up in people for a long, long time. It's been trying to get those people to open the hole wider, and let more of it in."

"Venaar is its agent, then?" Liana asked. "Selene called him 'Avatar'."

Kara nodded. "That's what Selene meant by his will not being his own. This... Silence... completely controls him." She put her face in her hands. "I touched it in him. It's cold, still. If the Music is life, then the Silence is definitely death."

Neither Renn or Liana said a word. Their faces grew grim at the idea of such a power flooding the galaxy and beyond.

"I'm not asking either of you to go with me," Kara finally said.

"Are you planning to walk to Derra IV, then?" Renn's brows rose.

"Renn, be serious," Liana snapped.

"Look, the way I see it, we've already pulled off one impossible thing this trip. Why not push our luck?"

Liana shook her head at him. "We will see this through with you, Kara." She paused, sounding a little uncertain. "If you'll have us, that is."

"Well.... It _is_ kinda far to walk," Kara said, winking through misty eyes.

***

Aeron marched into the Council Chamber of the Solara academy.

The five Masters turned as one to watch as he stalked determinedly towards the center of their half-ring of seats. They said nothing as he stood before them, face cold as stone.

Finally, Master D'Yarn spoke. "You take issue with our decision regarding the girl?"

"I do. How could you ignore the threat Venaar poses and instead label Kara a danger?"

"We have only her word," D'Yarn replied. "All we know is what the Force tells us."

"Even I know that the Force tells us a great storm is coming," Aeron said accusingly, "and yet you are content to sit here and do nothing?"

"What would you have us do?" Ashee Quinn asked. "Rush our meager resources to her rescue? Confront some upstart warlord over a meaningless world?"

"I would bid you _act!"_ Aeron roared. "No life is meaningless in the Force! How can you turn your back on centuries of our tradition?"

"You would follow the example of Revan then?" Quinn demanded, her black eyes piercing Aeron like needles. "You confuse patience for disregard."

"Revan rushed to war when there were still other alternatives," Aeron said. "I go to battle as it is the last resort. And no, Master Quinn, I do not confuse patience, but I believe you do... except you confuse it with apathy." He turned on his heel and stormed out.

***

"Well," Renn said grimly, "I've set course for Derra IV, but I'm afraid it's going to take us awhile to get there. The hyperdrive took some damage during the rescue. It's still working, but we're gonna have to make a series of smaller jumps if we want to get anywhere."

"Can it be fixed?" Liana asked, pulling up the damage display on her own console.

"Not unless we park somewhere for a few days, and I don't think we'd save any time stopping to fix it. It'll get us there, just a little slower than usual."

"How long?" Kara asked.

"Three days, minimum," he responded.

Liana sighed. "My poor ship," she said.

Kara was torn between guilt that the Wanderer was in bad shape and anger that Venaar was going to beat them there. She tried to think of something to say when the sound of her rumbling stomach voiced its own opinion for her.

"Sorry," she said blushing. "It's been a long time since breakfast."

Liana reached over and patted the girl's arm. "Our course is set. There's nothing to be gained by sitting here wondering what awaits us. We should share a meal together." She didn't have to add 'while we can'. It was obvious in her voice.

Renn snorted. "Liana, you should break out a bottle of that stuff you think I don't know about."

She stared at him. "You don't drink."

He shrugged. "We're going up against the entire Sith fleet. If there's ever a time to get drunk, it's now."

Kara laughed at the image of Renn drunk.

Three hours later, they sat around a small table in the main hold. Liana's reserve turned out to be a rich, fruity liquor that warmed Kara from her very core, and she herself had contributed by spicing some of the ship rations into fare that at least tasted fresh.

As they finished off their food, Liana asked gently what had happened to her aboard the Dragon.

Kara poured herself a generous portion of the drink and took two big swallows before she answered. She told them of Venaar's accusations, of the fog that he filled her mind with, of what she had learned, and the fate of the holocron. Another swallow and she told of her re-awakening and the new crystals in her lightsaber.

When she was done, she grew quiet again, the feeling of failure crushing in on her once more.

"And you believed all that?" Renn demanded.

Liana glared in his direction. "It's not your fault, Kara." She reached across the table to touch the girl's arm. "He manipulated you, but you were strong enough to break free. There is still hope."

"Hope is nice," Kara slurred, "but I'd give a lot for a Republic fleet...."

"Sorry, farm girl, I used mine." Renn grinned at her.

She blinked in confusion.

Renn launched into the story of his fake Republic warships, with slightly more bragging about his own brilliance than was probably warranted. But maybe he'd earned it this time.

Liana only interrupted once, to tell Kara about Aeron's insistence that they strike when they did. It seemed like Renn was just going to gloss over that detail.

"He did?" she asked. "Huh... I don't know how much of what Venaar told me is false or true, but the Jedi Council seemed to bear a lot of it out. They were lying when they answered, by the way... most of the time, anyway."

Renn snorted. "Hell, I coulda told you that. They were too nervous." He shrugged, then added, "I might not like him much, but I don't think our pet Jedi knows about whatever it is they were hiding."

"I think perhaps I owe Aeron an apology for my behavior," Liana said quietly.

"What'd you do to him?" Kara asked.

The Trianii sighed. "I lost my temper. He suggested that you might be lost to us completely, and I attacked him."

"Yeah, didn't you notice the cuts on his face when we talked to him?" Renn asked.

"Uh... no," Kara admitted.

Renn drained the last of his cup. "I got it on the security cameras if you wanna see it later."

"Renn!"

Kara snickered. "Did he wet himself?"

_"Kara!"_ Liana exclaimed.

***

With grave reverence, Aeron entered the Senate Military Advisory Committee meeting chamber on Coruscant.

The dozen or so Senators and fleet officers looked down on him from their places around the ornately carved circular desk. The room was designed to make a person in Aeron's position feel smaller and more insignificant than those who sat like dread judges above.

The fact that he had left Solara immediately after his impromptu meeting with the Jedi Council and had not slept or washed during the twenty-hour trip to Coruscant meant that he cut a rumpled and withered figure before the Committee. It probably didn't help.

"Jedi Rhade," the Committee chair, an aging Rodian began, with the aid of his protocol droid. "What has brought you to us in such haste?"

Aeron executed a quick but formal bow. "I am here on a matter of utmost urgency. The Sith have invaded and blockaded the world of Derra IV. This you know. However we have uncovered evidence that there is something of terrible destructive power hidden on the planet itself." He paused, but no reaction was forthcoming. "We believe that the Sith will use this power against the Republic."

The woman who replied was an obvious military officer. "The Jedi Council has informed us that you are not their representative in this matter. We've had no intelligence from that sector suggesting anything of the sort. Do you have any proof of your claims?"

"My own witness," Aeron replied. He hadn't expected the Council to deny him like that. "The Sith Lord, Venaar, occupied the world in question for the sole purpose of finding this power. He arrived in his flagship three standard days before his blockading force and sent out search parties. Those searchers tracked down a single family line and exterminated all but one member of said family. She managed to escape from the planet in my care." It was sort of true at least.

"Venaar continued to pursue us and finally captured her," Aeron continued. "Venaar then questioned this girl until she was forced to reveal what she knew of this secret power. Once he had that information, Venaar set course back to rejoin the Derra IV blockade as fast as possible."

"We have only your word of this, Jedi," the female officer said sharply. "We cannot divert ships from important garrisons to a remote world without more evidence."

"Yes, where is this girl, then?" asked a grey-haired human senator. "If she can corroborate your story, we will need to speak with her."

'She's out there trying to stop what no one else seems willing to,' Aeron almost said. "She in en route to Derra IV to try and stop Venaar. The Republic must support her or we are all lost."

"The Republic is not commanded by the Jedi," the chairman said, his forceful words losing something in the banal tones of his translator droid. "Especially not by a Jedi who does not speak for the Order. Your Council has advised us that this is a Jedi affair. We will not involve ourselves in it."

Aeron's reply was interrupted by the odd shuffling clump of a bipedal life form using a cane. It came from one of the long hallways that led to this room and grew hypnotically louder as its source drew nearer.

An old man in senatorial robes entered. His silver hair shone with the determination of an old man who refuses to let time and age hobble him, and his eyes burned with intelligence and fire.

The chairman got to his feet in surprise. "Senator Onasi! Your audience with us is not for some time yet."

"I'm early," he said succinctly.

"Please, sir," another senator said. "Our business with this," his pause spoke volumes of derision, "Jedi is almost concluded."

"My business with you is in relation to his," Onasi replied. "First, though, I must say this. I have served the Republic for my entire life. I served with honor, loyalty and devotion. I fought the Mandalorians, I fought the Sith, and I fought with Revan to end Malak's war. I served on through the dark times and I stand here before you now to say that never, not once in all that time, have I ever been so disgusted with you."

One of the other senators started to stammer a reply, but Senator Onasi cut him off. "I'm not finished. How _dare_ you turn your back on a Jedi who comes calling for aid? How _dare_ you allow a Republic world to remain under Sith rule? The Republic has fallen far."

Swinging to fix Aeron with his gaze, he spoke to him. "You need help. I offer it. The Telosian Security Force is at your disposal. These," he paused and apparently bit back a nastier word, "people will just have to shift forces to cover the gap. Go with my blessing, and good hunting."

The elderly man turned to leave when the ranking military officer stood to attention. "Admiral Onasi!" he called. The Senator paused. "It's good to see you again, Carth."

"I'm a Senator now, Resh," Carth Onasi replied. "Don't go demoting me."

"You'll always be an Admiral to me, Sir," Resh replied and saluted.

***

Liana sat on a bench in the main hold, with the lights dimmed, nursing one last glass of her Trianii liquor. She should have known it was too strong for Renn and Kara, but she hadn't expected them both to fall asleep so quickly. Looking back, she probably should have taken it away from them long before they'd consumed so much. But they'd actually been laughing together, and that was worth it when such a grim prospect lurked ahead of them.

She looked fondly at Kara, asleep on the couch, and Renn sprawled on the floor not far away. Not trusting herself to be able to wrestle either of them back to their beds, Liana had brought blankets out here for them and let them sleep.

She stared pensively into her drink, then set it down. Hard to believe they'd all been through so much in such a short time. Harder still to believe that they had so much more yet to go through. Liana said a silent prayer. She was not a fool. She knew that they would probably not survive their return to Derra IV.

She'd always been an explorer, abandoning her homeworld to see the rest of the galaxy. Hers was a ship of orphans and outcasts, cut adrift from home and family.

Liana looked again at Renn, and at Kara. She was not afraid to die, because she would not be alone. She would be with her kin, the true kin that her Goddess had brought her.

She didn't realize that she had dozed off until a groan from Renn brought her up out of it. He was sitting up. He blinked at her, bleary-eyed, and rubbed his side. "Why was I sleeping on the floor?" he demanded, tossing the blanket aside as he tried to climb to his feet.

"Shh," she scolded, pointing to Kara, who was still curled up in her blanket. "You drank too much, and I did not want to lug you back to your own bed."

"I'm sore," he complained. "And my head is pounding." He staggered into the ship's small medbay, probably for some painkillers. Liana stood and stretched her own cramped muscles.

Renn came back into view. He braced himself against the medbay doorway as he choked down his medication. "Why'd you let me drink that stuff?" he muttered, shutting his eyes.

On impulse, Liana closed the distance between them and bent to lay her forehead gently against his.

"Don't you start getting sad on me, Captain," he said, though he didn't pull away. "You know I can't fly this thing alone."

She laughed and brushed her cheek against his in affection. "I'm not sad, Renn," she said. She was surprised herself to realize it was true.

***

Kara sat up and immediately winced. "Oh, my head," she groaned.

Liana started laughing, as if this was the most humorous thing in the galaxy. Renn sighed and went into the medbay. "Here. This'll help," he said, returning to hand a couple of pills and some water to the girl.

She swallowed the pills gratefully, then she sent a mock glare over at Liana. "If my head doesn't explode in the next few minutes, it'll be a major miracle. Why, oh, why did I drink so much?"

"I'm sorry," Liana managed. "You were both enjoying yourselves so much last night, I didn't have the heart to stop you."

Renn snorted. "You're not sorry."

"A sorry person would have mercy and shoot me," Kara added with a weak smile. The painkillers were already pushing back the pounding headache.

Liana shook her head in mock exasperation. "Just rest. It'll pass soon." Her ears flicked a moment ahead of the sound of her comlink. "Yes?"

"Captain Liana, we are coming up on the next jump point," said B4's mechanical voice.

"All right, I'll take care of it," Liana replied, striding briskly toward the cockpit.

Renn sat down on the bench. "You know she drank as much as either of us. Why's she fine?" he muttered.

"Forcing things down unsuspecting throats must be some hitherto unknown spacer thing," Kara replied. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"You're lucky I had a capsule ready. Otherwise, it would've had to be an external transmitter, and they'd probably have destroyed that long before we were ready." Renn paused, then shrugged. "I wouldn't have had to trick you if you'd just taken it."

She tried to adjust herself on the bench so her head didn't feel like exploding, but gave it up for hopeless. "Us farm girls are stubborn, I guess."

"So am I," he said, with that charming, infuriating smirk of his. "If we get through this, I'm getting you a permanent tracker implant."

"That sounds... painful. Maybe I'll let myself get shot and avoid the whole thing." All right, that was the wrong thing to say right now.

Renn grew grim. "There's a cheerful thought." He got up again and paced across the room, seeming restless. "You think we have a chance?" he asked suddenly. He wasn't looking at her.

"My father used to say odds worked like this: all mathematics aside, something either _will_ happen, or it _won't._ I'd say that gives us about a fifty-fifty shot."

"Damn, you _do_ like bad odds, farm girl."

***

The Dragon reverted to real space high above the word of Derra IV. Arrayed before them was every ship, fighter and transport loyal to Lord Venaar. Whole planets had been stripped of people in the mass exodus of Sith firepower to this remote world. Battle cruisers gleamed in the light of the system's primary. Fighters, both manned and droid-piloted, buzzed about like swarms of brilliant insects. All of them facing outwards, waiting along hyperspace routes.

On the bridge of his flagship, Venaar surveyed the vast fleet and sighed. "Captain Hyridan, have all troops, security personnel, and every man not on flight detail prepare to disembark. Issue combat armor and field weapons as needed. Deploy them all on the planet's surface as soon as possible."

"My lord? But the fleet...?"

"Leave skeleton crews on all vessels. They are only here to delay interference. The real prize is on the surface, and once we have it, anyone who stands against us will be as dust."

"Yes, Lord Venaar." Hyridan saluted and turned to issue orders.

Venaar turned on his heel and made his way to the hangar bay. There he boarded his personal fighter craft and dropped from the Dragon down into the planet's atmosphere. Already the first wave of troop ships were dropping from the fleet towards the planet, their destination preprogrammed.

Venaar's ship cut through clouds and emerged above a brilliant green vista. The natural beauty of the world was lost on him as he maneuvered his fighter to the head of a long column of descending Sith gunships.

Fields ripe with crops ready for harvest sped by beneath them, rivers gleaming silvery-blue soon fading away and towering mountains capped with bright snow easily avoided. Their destination neared, only a roiling cloud bank barring their path. Venaar's fighter accelerated and pierced the veil, revealing a stark, lifeless valley. Nothing grew here, nothing stirred except random shifts and falls of fine shale, sifted down the steep cliffs by rain.

There, at the end of the valley, like a worm hole bored into the side of a perfect green fruit, was the cave.

Venaar landed and ordered the gun ships to begin disembarking troops around the area. Leaving the disposition of these forces to his commanders, Venaar strode into the echoing depths.

***

The Wanderer's crew spent the final hyperspace jump preparing for battle. Liana had strapped the pair of blasters she'd been wielding in the cantina to her belt, along with a long knife that looked vaguely ceremonial, before helping Kara get back into the golden armor. Renn had said something about needing to work on T5's special fallback program. Kara didn't want to think about what he was doing, because it probably involved setting the crazy little astromech up with weapons.

B4's voice came over the ship's intercom. "We will be arriving at our final destination shortly."

The three of them sat in silence in the ship's cockpit, save for the sounds of the ship's system and whatever Renn was doing on his console.

They reverted to real space, and found themselves face to face with an armada. The Sith fighters wasted no time in setting course to greet them.

"Incoming," Liana said shortly, taking manual control to try and avoid.

"Heh." Renn shook his head. "They're not all manned fighters this time. I guess they really didn't learn." His fingers flew over his console, trying to repeat the trick he'd pulled on their way out of Derra IV.

"The fighters are closing in, Renn," Kara said worriedly. Indeed, it looked like a tidal wave of ships was nearly upon them.

"Almost there," Renn said through gritted teeth.

"Now would be good," Liana pointed out a moment later as the fighters' formation swung wide, planning to envelop the freighter.

"Damn! They changed their protocols! I got nothing!" Renn swore.

The three of them looked helplessly out the cockpit viewport as the wave of fighters pounced.


	8. Crescendo

Liana was trying her hardest to dodge but there were just too many fighters. Laser light flashed past the viewport, and the Wanderer shook violently. Renn closed his eyes and braced himself. It was going to be over before they'd even had a chance.

And then, his console whooped for attention. His eyes blinked open. "Why aren't we dead? We should be dead."

"Are you complaining?" Kara asked shakily from somewhere behind him.

"No, just curious." He scanned his display. "Wait, that can't be right." His hands made rapid movements across his console, trying to find an explanation for what he was seeing.

Beside him, Liana leaned forward in her seat to stare at her readouts, as if she couldn't believe what she saw either. Her eyes were wide. "Renn, look," she gasped.

A small fleet of Republic warships, the last of which were still jumping in as they watched, had appeared behind them.

An insistent beeping drew Renn's attention back to the comm. "The Republic flagship wants to talk to us, Captain."

"All right, let's find out who's out there."

A voice and face resolved on the transmission screen. "...anderer, Wanderer, respond. It is vital you maintain your present course."

"Aeron?!" Kara exclaimed in shock

"Why maintain? It'll make us a bigger target," Renn protested.

"This is why," Aeron responded easily. He glanced off screen. "Fire when ready, Captain."

A veritable fountain of turbolaser fire erupted all around the Wanderer. It tore through Sith fighters, holed battleships already struggling to raise shields against the newcomers, and punched straight through to Derra IV.

"That's a good reason," Kara mused.

Liana nodded and kept the ship steady on its course toward the planet. The craft shook with the impact of the lasers against their targets but was otherwise untouched by the Republic barrage.

"I didn't think your Masters were keen on helping us," Renn said to the Jedi. "How'd you convince them?"

"I didn't," Aeron said icily. "So I told them what for, and left to find other help. Being with you people has been a seriously negative influence on me," he said with a wink.

Renn bit back a laugh that was fueled almost as much by relief than Aeron's joke. Wouldn't do for the Jedi to get the wrong idea. "You learned good timing, at least," he replied.

"Renn, less chatter please," Liana said briskly. "I need you to figure out where we're going on the planet _before_ we get there."

"Yes, Captain." Renn pulled up his sensor displays. "Kara, what are we looking for?"

Kara's eyes closed, but snapped open a moment later with the glee of a hound on a fresh scent. "It's some sort of cave, northern hemisphere, dayward side. There's a huge concentration of life around a big empty... spot. Venaar probably ringed himself with as many soldiers as he could. Can you find a big knot of them?

Aeron glanced off-screen again. "Found it. Feeding you the coordinates now. We'll keep the armada off your back and drop some troops of our own to give you cover. May the Force...." he paused. "Good luck, Wanderer. Make it back safe." Aeron signed off.

"That's the plan," Renn muttered, as the Wanderer closed in on the coordinates and whatever awaited them on the planet's surface.

***

Throughout all of galactic history, no type of soldier was more revered, or more insane, than the Republic rocket trooper.

Encased in body armor and armed with anti-artillery photon grenades, the rocket troopers were deployed from nothing less than the mass-driver of an orbiting Republic warship. They would then enter the planet's ionosphere and eventually the atmosphere with nothing between them and burning up but a thin, ablative bag. This bag was made of a memory cloth that would, when cool enough after heating, spread rudimentary wings and enable the trooper to maneuver slightly and remain in formation. The trooper would be in this state of barely-controlled free fall for several minutes before becoming active.

They were designed to operate under the idea that a human body was far too small for the average planetary defense emplacement to target. At a predetermined altitude, the trooper's entry bag would literally disintegrate, allowing the trooper to bring his grenade launcher to bear on whatever field artillery the enemy had deployed beneath him.

After firing a few rounds, the trooper would then, and only then, engage an emergency parachute that would slow them down enough to crash into the planet's surface and survive.

It was a tradition in the rocket troops that new recruits not take their first jump sober. The reason being that no one would do this in a legal state of mind.

The Telosian Security Forces did not have any rocket troops, but an entire battalion of them had arrived at the fleet's rally point and volunteered. "Because barracks life was getting boring," as their commander had put it.

In the ready area of a Republic ship, the commander of the battalion heard the question that always signaled a jump was about to begin.

"Sir, I hear the Sith use shuttles to ferry their troops down. Why don't we do that?"

"Because, Private, they're too lazy! Now seal up and ready to jump."

The specially fitted Republic Hammerhead class warships were positioning themselves above the orbital window to reach the target site.

Mass-drivers extended, each of the four vessels began firing six troopers every second towards the planet below.

***

Liana began jinking the freighter around as a small horde of objects began to catch up to them.

"Oh my... those are _people!_  What are they, insane?" Kara breathed.

"Rocket troops?" Renn asked. "Yeah, that's a good label for them."

"This one's waving at us," Kara observed. She waved back, at a loss for any other reaction.

At that point, Sith field cannons on the planet below opened up at them, the Wanderer being the only thing big enough to see.

They tried to evade the fire but it was too much, and the freighter rocked violently. "We're hit!" Liana shouted. She was fighting the controls now, trying to guide the ship down toward what looked like a plain. "Brace yourselves. We're going to crash."

The impact would have thrown them out of their seats had they not been strapped in. The Wanderer plowed a furrow into the ground before the ship's momentum ran out, and then stopped with a bone-jarring jolt.

Renn's fingers flew over his console. "Okay, main power's still good. Repulsors and all drive systems are down. Weapons and shields are both fried. In other words, we have a nice house."

"Renn!" Kara snapped.

"Don't worry, they're all repairable in about ten hours," he replied. "Unfortunately, we won't have that long. Sensors tell me there's about three thousand or so troops marching up the backside of that hill towards us." He pointed.

"How far are we from the target?" Liana asked.

"Only about forty miles or so. A couple days hard walking."

"We don't have a couple of days," Kara said, her face falling and her voice far away.

"At any rate, we need to get out of here before we're trapped," Liana said, unstrapping herself from the safety harness. "Renn, is T5 ready?"

Renn released his own harness. "Well, now that we have Republic troops around, I need to make a little modification to his programming. It'll only take me a few seconds."

"What modification?"

"Well, I set him up to shoot anyone who wasn't us. I should probably widen that so he doesn't shoot our new allies in the back." He headed toward the back of the ship.

"Kara? Come on, we have to move." Liana released the girl's safety harness for her.

Kara looked up at her, eyes still anywhere but here.

Being careful with her claws this time, Liana backhanded her across the cheek just hard enough to sting. "Kara! Focus! We need to get out of here before the Sith arrive."

Struggling out of her restraints, Kara followed Liana out, still not saying anything.

"T5's updated," Renn said, joining them beside the airlock hatch.

Liana grabbed a small survival med pack from a locker and handed it to B4. "You're medic until I say otherwise," she instructed.

She keyed the hatch open and T5 rolled, happily tooting, out into the light of day. The sound of blaster fire soon reached them, along with happy droid melodies.

"Damn, their scouts are closer than we thought. We can't get trapped in here." Renn started for the hatch, but Liana's hand stopped him.

"I'll go first. Stay close to Kara." And then Liana went down the ramp, both blasters out.

Renn glanced at Kara. She was just standing there, staring out the hatch. "Come on." He drew his blaster and started after Liana. He checked back over his shoulder, as if to make sure she was following him, but Kara bolted past him. Her lightsaber was already separated and both blades gleamed gold against the sky.

Kara stood her ground, covering her friends' retreat. Her blades moved faster than seemed humanly possible. She was perfect as she lunged and sent deadly light back to its source. The scouts' fire soon diminished and Kara moved to join her friends in wary withdrawal.

Abruptly, B4 pointed and cried out in alarm, "Captain Liana! Look, shuttles approaching!"

"Reinforcements?" Kara asked, squinting against the sky.

Renn swore. There were at least ten shuttles dropping from the sky. Three were already lifting off again, having disgorged their troops directly in the crew's path. "They're not on our side."

Liana pulled up short. "We're going to be surrounded." She was scanning the area for a more defensible position, but there was very little aside from the Sith troops and the smoking hulk of their ship. "Kara, run. You need to get to Venaar-"

"No," Renn interrupted. Liana turned to stare at him. "If she runs, she's a target. They'll just shoot her in the back." He grabbed Kara's arm. "Listen, we're not important here. We got you here. We're done. Surrender if you have to, use some mind trick to get them to take you to Venaar. As long as you stay alive, you can end this."

Kara spared him a pitying glance. "Don't go self-sacrificing on me, spacer boy. I was just calling in some friends."

"What? What friends?" he demanded, not relinquishing his grip on her arm.

She pointed to a wisp of cloud. "Them."

Liana narrowed her eyes as she studied the white mass. "It's moving... against the wind?"

Indeed the cloud was getting closer, larger. It soon resolved into a soft flurry of movement. A basso rumble of Music made Kara both wince and smile.

_'We come!'_

Gliderwings, thousands of them, fell from the sky upon the gathering Sith troops. They tore at the troopships, a flight of four shredding one in mid-air. They stooped upon soldiers and clutched them in their claws to dash against rocks. Some were already stained crimson from their carnage.

A great white beast landed next to Kara with surprisingly little sound. It butted its head against her chest. 'I missed you, my featherless fledgling,' it Sang. 'It is good that you return. Something... stirs.'

Kara nodded. 'That is why my friends and I are here. Can you carry us to it?' she asked in the Music.

Other gliderwings had since landed. One poked at Renn curiously, but they steered clear of Liana.

"What are they?" Liana asked, as Renn batted at the one who was prodding his arm.

"My friends. They are called gliderwings. They can Sing in the Music and," she giggled, "I think they are afraid of you."

'We will carry you into battle,' the one before her Sang. 'That Which is Not is growing. It will consume the world if we allow it.'

***

Kirennan Venaar's mind shrank back from the power he felt flood him. It wasn't the hot, searing power of anger, hate, love. No, this power was so cold it burned. It was the power of death.

This cave, this entire world, existed solely to keep this cold implacable nothingness in check. He would unbar the door, and allow it to empty into this universe with the thunderous certainty of a flood. He would drown the meaningless and unseemly chaos in perfect order.

He would end all things.

His heart cried with joy at the pure, simple beauty of it all.

Of course, the door was not merely barred, it was guarded. She was here, he knew. She would always be here, and she would stop him.

Let her come. Let the Silence consume her mind and erase her stain from this perfection.

***

Above Derra IV, the small band of Republic warships hammered away at a Sith fleet that was slow to respond.

Great Sith battleships that required thousands to properly crew them were having to make do with dozens. Systems went down, never to return, and shields collapsed under the surgical fire of the Republic vessels.

The Dragon itself was no exception. Captain Hyridan sat at a bridge gunnery station, trying to coordinate the actions of his own ship at least, as the laughably small Republic task force tore his great armada to shreds. They just didn't have the manpower. All the ships, weapons and technical supremacy of the Sith was useless because Lord Venaar had stripped them of the people needed to make the tools of war effective.

Slowly, inexorably, the Sith were being driven back. The Republic's goal was clear; they wanted to occupy the space above Lord Venaar's position. Probably to bombard it from orbit.

Hyridan saw a gap open in the Sith lines and barked at a communications officer to order vessels to fill it, but he had no way of knowing if the order went out. There was sheer chaos across their tactical frequencies.

The Dragon bucked from the impact of multiple torpedo hits. The shields flickered, then died.

Hyridan stood and glared defiance out towards the smaller Republic vessel. As the turbo laser fire pierced his ship's conn tower and the bridge itself, he sounded the battle cry of the Sith navy, and died a proud man.

***

Aboard the Telosian flagship, Aeron watched the fiery death of the Sith cruiser. "How long until we reach target coordinates?" he asked a tech.

"We're three degrees out. At this rate, less than a minute." The man paused. "Ground control reports that all the rocket troops are dirt-side. They're engaging the Sith ground forces at the Wanderer's crash site, but they say the freighter was deserted."

The Jedi arched an eyebrow. "Bad manners, not waiting for us to rescue them." He turned back to the gunners. "As soon as we are in position, I want you to clear a path between the Wanderer and the cave. Carve it right through the Sith lines."

"Yes, sir," the officer responded.

***

Light years away on the world of Solara, five Jedi Masters huddled in close council.

To one side of the circle sat three beings so ancient and connected through the Force that they spoke and thought as one. Their sight into the future or past was unparalleled in the history of the Order, but if they themselves had ever had names, they had long since fallen to dust, for none knew them, not even the three.

Across from them sat Ashee Quinn, the youngest member of the Council, and the elderly D'Yarn, who had trained most of the Jedi from the Solara Temple.

"Can you feel it, D'Yarn?" Master Quinn asked. "I can no longer see the road before the child."

"Bladedancer's kin, you mean?" the old man responded.

"She," Quinn replied with odd emphasis, "has passed into shadow, and I do not know if she will ever emerge again."

"We were wrong to ignore the rise of Venaar," D'Yarn admitted. "His... Silence... could destroy us all. I am sorry, my friends. I will not lie to you. I feel that our final chapter is being penned." He bowed his head and added gravely, "We must find what peace we can in that."

"But, without us-" Quinn began in alarm, only to be interrupted by the sound of their Council Chamber door opening.

All five looked up. A figure strode into their midst purposefully, containing a furious power that no human frame should be able to. He wore flowing robes of white. The light reflected in sharp glare from his garments. His hood was pulled up, hiding his face from view, but not quite concealing the maze of scars that covered his cheeks and chin.

The Council all sank to one knee in reverence.

"Master Valen Kell," Ashee Quinn intoned. "You return to us."

Kell lowered his hood. "Ah," he said in his ruined voice, "the prophesied moment approaches."

"It does, Master," D'Yarn said.

"Be not afraid, friends," Kell said. "The girl is equal to the task I have appointed her. It shall be as was foreseen. She shall awaken, and then we will make her ours."

D'Yarn was not convinced. "Are you certain? If she truly awakens to what she is, she will be beyond even our control."

Kell eyed his old mentor. Always the two had argued, but still they had walked the same path. Perhaps something had changed. "I sense your lack of faith in the vision, D'Yarn. Do not work against us with your doubt and fear."

"Against you?" D'Yarn said, aghast. "Force's will, man. Do you not hear yourself anymore?!"

"Aged D'Yarn," Kell asked, "do you still tread the same path as we?"

"I am a Jedi," the old man replied somberly. "I serve the Force and walk the path it has laid before my feet."

"Yes," Kell responded sadly, "I see that. A pity." With blinding speed, he drew and ignited his lightsaber, running the old man through before he could even react.

D'Yarn died with a look of shocked resignation.

"Forgive me, old friend," Kell said, as the body of his teacher slid off of his blade and crumpled to the floor. "Your wisdom will be missed, but we _must_ continue... without you."

"He lost his faith," Quinn said sadly. "Regrettable."

The three ancient Masters, who had remained passive until now, spoke in their odd unison. "However, he _did_ raise a valid point. Was it wise to allow this confrontation now? Can the girl truly defeat the Avatar?"

"Perhaps not," Kell admitted. "But there remain too many other possibilities. Some are beyond our control. If only Rhade had not failed to secure Selene's legacy...."

"Forgive me, Master," Quinn asked, "but is it possible he has truly broken from us?"

"No," Valen Kell disagreed. "He walks our path still. Even if _he_ does not know it...."

***

The thunder of turbolaser fire cut through the clouds and gouged deep wounds in the earth. The Sith army had no defense against it. Portable shield generators could only do so much, and those were too widely scattered. The fire fell in a kilometer-wide swath, starting at the outer fringes of their formation and moving steadily towards the center.

The ships in orbit were hampered a bit by the terrain they were firing into. They could only maintain position for a short time. The Sith fleet was still not destroyed, though it was only a matter of time before they would have to withdraw.

There was little for the soldiers to do but find what cover they could and pray that the fire was not coming for them this day.

When the rain of death passed them, men dared to look out into the sky, only to find that death had not yet departed.

Great white feathered beasts dropped on them from the heavens, their cruel, chitinous beaks sounding ear-splitting battle cries and their talons piercing armor and flesh alike. They fell on the soldiers and rent them limb from limb. The bird-like creatures died by the hundreds, but the Sith died by the thousands.

At the head of the great host of winged death rode a figure encased in golden armor and wielding a blade of pure sun-fire.

Rumors of her escape from the Dragon had spread like wildfire through the ranks. This was Lady Vanden, and to close with her was to die.

Her mount slashed the air with its wings as it brought its claws to bear like a farmer's scythe on a massive rank of troops. Their return fire sped away from the beast, deflected by the rider's glowing blade. As it climbed above them again for another pass, the rider lept from her mount and landed without a sound in the space cleared by her last assault.

Her blade striking fearsome highlights from her armor, the figure assumed a ready stance.

***

Kara was breathing hard by the time she hit the ground.

The death and the pain of wounded men washed through her like acid, eroding her strength and weakening her resolve.

And this was only the beginning.

A scant hundred meters now stood between her and the cave. She could feel the sucking black nothingness inside it like a treacherous undertow. It called to her, thankful for the deaths she and her companions had fed it so far, but still anxious for the main course to begin.

She brought her blades up and called a challenge to the men who barred her way. "My business is with your Lord. Stand aside or I will force my way to him."

Her response came from a sergeant, his armor dull and dented from more than just this day's fighting. He spoke not a word, but raised his rifle and fired.

The shot triggered an onslaught of fire from his men and Kara was in the thick of fighting once more. She parried, she spun and slashed, she stabbed through men's armor and sent their own blaster fire back to them. Soon there were only fifty yards, then twenty, a dozen... and then, she was there, and a trail of bodies marked her passage.

As she broke into the open, mere feet from the cave itself, two gliderwings landed behind her and Renn and Liana dropped to the ground.

"He's in there?" Renn asked simply.

Kara nodded.

"Good." He and Liana checked their blasters and the Wanderer's Captain drew her ceremonial blade. "Let's go kill him."

The three friends strode into the cave together.

***

Somehow, Kara had expected there to be some sort of altar or artifice within the cave, something to signify the presence of the darkness contained here. The lack of any such structure only made it more frightening to her. She motioned Renn and Liana to stay back. "Guard the entrance, make sure no one else gets in."

"Right," Renn said. "Be careful, Kara."

Liana put a hand on her shoulder. "I would not have missed these last few weeks for anything. Come back to us, Kara."

Kara didn't trust herself to answer. For what might be the last time, she looked at her friends. "Be well," she said simply to them, and moved deeper into the cave.

The cavern was a vast empty hole. The floor was flat and wide, leading up gently to a raised, level spot upon which Venaar knelt, glaring down at her like a king upon his throne.

"Lady Vanden," Venaar said silkily as she drew near. "Your grandmother's armor suits you."

"We're going to end it now, Venaar," she responded. "Your army is being defeated, and your fleet is lost. Now, I'm going to kill you. The Silence ends here."

Venaar laughed. "The Silence does not end here, even if you win. The Jedi have struggled since their inception with this simple truth, and now it is your turn. How does one shine brightly and not cast an equally dark shadow? You cannot exist without me."

"You don't get it, do you?" Kara said. "You took everything from me. I don't _care_ if I survive or not, but I will end you. Right here, and right now."

"You're wrong, you know." Venaar sighed. "I admit, I lied to you. I want this power, this Silence. But everything else I ever said to you was the utter truth."

"The sad part is that you think I care about your lies." She lit both blades and whipped them into a ready stance.

"Your tragedy is complete then." Venaar got to his feet and, suddenly, there was a tongue of blood red lightsaber blade in his right hand. "Shall we dance, my Lady?"

His movement was so fast not even Kara was aware of it. He appeared beside her, his blade licking towards her. She blocked it, but only barely, and it entangled both of her sabers to do it. Then he was moving again, flicking his single blade against hers with the precision that comes only of long practice.

Kara had indeed inherited Selene's gift with the lightsaber, but she was untrained. Her style was raw, more talent and instinct than skill. For the first time, she faced someone who knew the art of lightsaber combat, and she could do nothing against him.

He toyed with her, scorching her armor here and there, never searing deep enough to wound. Always flitting away like a ghost. He was everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.

Fear knotted Kara's insides as the fight continued. Venaar was too much for her; she was not going to beat him. She was going to die in this cave and there was nothing she could do. The notes of her Music faded into the vast echoing halls of Silence.

Finally, Venaar's assault eased. He moved beyond her reach and extinguished his blade. "It is a pity, really, that you were never trained," he said sadly. "This is not even difficult."

'He's not even breathing hard,' Kara thought, as she struggled to fill her heaving lungs.

"I will finish you quickly if you ask it of me," he said gravely. "This silly dancing about is entertaining, I suppose, but hardly befitting our rank. Selene would weep for your lack of ability. Stand down and let this end."

"Don't sully her name, monster," Kara panted. "Selene would be disgusted by you and what you've become. You slaughter whole worlds, and you want to kill the universe itself."

Uncounted life, beauty beyond measure, and a future not guessed at, all denied because she allowed it? No. Something in her would not let the fatigue, the fear and the sorrow wash her away that easily. No. "If I have to die anyway, I'm going down with your blood on my hands."

Then, something in her clicked. A Song, a beautiful, mournful, but determined Song. In this instant, she heard not only the life around her, but all life. Everywhere.

It was beautiful.

Venaar's face hardened. "Then let us end it." His blade flared again and he charged.

She neatly sidestepped him.

His blade came back around, aiming for her neck. She bowed and the blade flew by with nary a singed hair.

The Music of the universe Sang in her heart, and it was a tune she knew well.

Her blades came around in a neat arc that Venaar barely parried. His own counterthrust flicked between her guard and would have scored had she still been there. She spun away and brought one blade around to deflect the strike, countering again, and again, and again. Their blades flashed as they danced back and forth across the cave.

Kara had thought Bladedancer was a term of honor used to address Selene's skill with her lightsabers. It wasn't. Bladedancer was the way she fought.

She was well into the dance now, and Venaar could no more touch her than he could swallow a star. His parries grew more desperate, his strikes fewer and less accurate. His strength was flagging, while light and Music poured into Kara.

He reached out with his power and flung the stones of the cave at her, but she parried them. He tried to break her guard with his lightsaber and was rebuffed. He reached for her with his inner darkness and was burned back by her blazing light.

Slowly, inexorably, he tried to retreat now, deeper into the cave. Kara cut his escape off and forced him back towards the entrance. With one final, surging rush, they broke into the first gallery, where Renn and Liana were still holding off a few of the more determined Sith soldiers. It seemed most of the army had given up and retreated as Republic troop ships landed outside.

Venaar fell to one knee gasping. "I yield, Lady Vanden. Spare me." He extinguished his blade and flung it from him down the gallery.

She drew near him, her blades still bright and wary.

Suddenly, an inner voice surged up from the Silence within Venaar. "Behind you!" it screamed.

Kara spun and sliced neatly through the re-ignited red lightsaber that was rocketing toward her back at Venaar's call.

Venaar surged to his feet, walls of darkness radiating out from him as the Silence again smothered the inner voice. Another lightsaber glowed in his left hand.

Kara's whirling parry brought her back around and the new weapon was also sliced in half, taking most of Venaar's hand with it. Her other blade came around and speared the Sith lord through the mid-section.

Venaar gasped as the golden fire burned through him and emerged on the other side. The Music in Kara's mind paused, as if holding the final chord, and she staggered back, her lightsabers extinguished, dropping to the floor.

The Dark Lord of the Sith crumpled to his knees again, a look of shocked chagrin on his face; then he threw his head back and quite literally roared.

A cloud of inky blackness emptied out of him, all the dark foulness draining away as the inner notes of Venaar's own death drove the Silence from him.

It gathered above his dying body, the wrongness of it assaulting Kara's senses and distorting the Music. The thing seemed to consider those about it. It shied from her instantly, but then it paused, as if it were coming to some momentous choice.

Renn cried out and fell to his knees as the Silence poured into him, a streaming funnel of pure black. His pleading, dark eyes burned into Kara's. He was being consumed, and he knew it. The Silence fought to subdue his inner Song, to bring him under its control.

Liana dropped her weapons and threw herself upon her partner with a wail.

Kara stood, stunned. Killing Venaar had not ended the Silence. It had taken one of her friends instead, someone it knew she could not kill.

A small sound reached her. Venaar was gasping. "When you shine, you cast... a shadow," he said weakly. "You must... deal with the shadow... you cast."

And then, she knew what she needed to do.

Taking three steps, Kara lifted Liana away from Renn. She spoke not a word to her friend, but she put a warm hand against her furry cheek. The other woman seemed to understand and retreated without another sound.

Kara knelt by the writhing form of Renn. He screamed as she touched him. She put her hands gently to his face and touched her forehead to his. Then, she began to Sing.

***

High in orbit, Aeron's mind exploded.

A vision, a vision of great white wings of light enveloping the galaxy, the universe in pure, accepting love.

"Kara," he breathed, as tears burned his cheeks.

***

Kara Tao Vanden Sang.

She Sang of grassy valleys and blue skies.

She Sang of family.

She Sang of life, light and love.

She Sang of freedom and goodness.

She Sang of the future.

The Song echoed through her. The entire universe heard the clear, crystal notes and it shuddered with the reverberations of Music.

And as she Sang, she began to glow. A soft radiance at first, like a sunbeam through the war-tattered clouds above the cave, but then stronger, as the Music of life filled her and she radiated it out a hundred fold.

She Sang.

The light grew still further and it enveloped both her and Renn. The darkness within him quivered in fear and tried to flee, but it had nowhere to go. All around it burned with Kara's light and Kara's Song.

As the Song continued, other voices — strong, ancient voices — joined hers. The gliderwings had entered her Song and added their chorus to the Music. Then other voices came, scattered across the world, and then voices from other worlds. The universe itself Sang.

The light grew and changed. It became a set of glorious wings which suddenly erupted from Kara's back. The wings spread, reached back though the cave, through the world to the ends of time and space. There, they folded. And curved about the universe.

As her friends had done for her in her pain, her wings enfolded those she loved in light, warmth and peace.

The Silence found nowhere it could exist in a universe of Music and light. It simply ceased to be.

The only way to not cast a shadow, after all, is to shine everywhere at once.

Slowly, the moment passed. The Music faded to its normal level. Kara slumped away from Renn.

Liana returned and embraced him. Renn seemed stunned, staring at Kara with unreadable eyes.

"Kara?" came another weak voice off to her right. Venaar was still barely alive. "Before the Force takes me, I have to say one last thing to you." His voice in the Music was low, but there. Venaar's Silence was gone from this universe.

She went to him, and he seized her hand. "I... I failed. I am so sorry. I was not always that... creature. I was once a young Padawan, who followed his Master-father to war."

Kara could find no words.

"I swore," he gasped. "I swore to protect you.... But the Silence took me.... I couldn't stop it...."

"Hush," Kara soothed. It didn't really surprise her. Not now. "Your duty is done, cousin. Rest. It's fine now."

Venaar smiled, and then he simply let go. His Song reached its crescendo, and faded into the Music forever.

***

The remaining Sith troops had surrendered after that. Not that Renn really noticed. He let Liana check him over for injury without saying a word, enduring poking and prodding that normally would have drawn protest. When she was satisfied with his physical state, she suggested to Kara that they go back to the ship to check him out more thoroughly in the medbay before they began repairs. He hardly heard their discussion.

Renn didn't even complain about the gliderwings, which was a surer sign of his much subdued state of mind than anything else.

He was completely drained. Not just tired, though he was that, too. He felt empty.

When they arrived back at the ship, they found a knot of Republic rocket troops hoisting a beeping T5 on their brawny shoulders as if he was a hero. Maybe he was. Liana, her tail lashing, took a step toward them, as if to demand they give back her droid.

Kara stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Let them," she said quietly. "I have a feeling he's earned it."

Ears back, Liana turned to survey the ship instead. Renn did, too, the first hint of something else rising past the sheen of numbness that had fallen over him. It was in bad shape, his home. He was going to have to do something about that.

He moved past the two women, startling them, to the ramp where the anxious B4 was hovering. "I've begun some of the basic repairs," the droid began. Renn ignored him, and went straight for the engine room.

It was enough, to have the repairs to focus on. Something to do, something else to concentrate on. Liana appeared in the doorway after a little while — Renn didn't know how long — and she crouched by where he sat on the engine room floor, surrounded by parts and tools. "Renn, are you sure you're all right?" she asked.

He nodded. She didn't leave. Finally, Renn set down his tools and looked at her. "I will be," he said. "I think."

Liana bowed her head to his, and touched his hair. "You should rest."

"I'll rest when we're off the ground," he replied, taking up his tools again, "where we belong." A hint of amusement in his voice, he added, "I want to get off this rock."

His Captain chuckled. "Isn't that how we got into this?" she asked, ruffling his hair as she stood. "Kara went back to her family's farm. We may have to wait for her."

"She'll be here in time," he replied, reaching back into the open panel he'd been working on. He wasn't sure how, but he knew she would be.

***

Kara Tao Vanden knelt before two crude graves on the little hill above her family's farm. She carefully scraped away the earth on the other side of her mother's and deposited the ruined remains of Selene's holocron into the hole, covering it reverently. Just beyond, separated a short ways from her parents, was another new grave, this one labeled 'Venaar, loyal kin and protector'.

From a spot between her parents’ graves, she took a few handfuls of soil, and placed them into a small jar. So that, wherever her travels took her, some small piece of home would always be with her.

Finished, she stood and wiped the dirt from her knees. Nature was already reclaiming the fields her family had tilled, and the burned house was little more than a dark smudge of charred earth now. Memories tugged at her and brought fresh grief.

"It is the way of things, child." A voice floated to her on the wind, comforting.

"I know, Grandmother," Kara said. "But that doesn't make it easier. I miss them."

"They are with you, Kara," the ghost of Selene replied, shimmering into view near the gravestones. "They are always with you, as am I. We are so very proud of you."

Kara smiled then, wanly, but still a smile. She turned and went towards the gliderwing that had stayed with her since their reunion on the battlefield. He wrapped his long neck around her shoulders in an embrace of friendship and she stroked his feathers. Her oldest friend, bidding her goodbye.

***

Kara arrived at the site of the Wanderer's crash in time to see the Republic engineers hoist it onto a temporary repair facility. The ship was swarming with Republic techs and repair droids all working happily at repairing the vessel. At the foot of its boarding ramp, she found Renn, Liana and Aeron talking.

"I have no wish to return to Solara and the Jedi," Aeron said flatly. "The Council turned its back on the code. I still serve that tradition, but they do not. It does, however, leave me without a home."

"What are we, a halfway house for itinerant Jedi?" Renn asked, with only a hint of his usual ire.

"Well, you _do_ have a spare bunk, do you not?" Aeron asked.

Renn flashed Liana a pleading look. She ignored it. "We do," she said simply. Liana noticed Kara's approach then, and raised one hand in greeting. "They say the repairs will be finished in a few more hours."

"Yeah, after they just took over without asking," Renn muttered.

"You'd rather still be stuck in our own crater?" Kara asked.

"No, I'd rather be doing something to fix it myself," he retorted.

"Just not enough to go and help, though, apparently," Aeron commented.

Renn flashed the other man a dark look, then stalked off toward the ship, stopping to grab a kit from a hapless tech as he passed.

Liana watched him go, her ears back in concern.

"So," Kara said into the uneasy silence, "where to next, Boss?"

"I suspect we may have to lay low until things settle down. I'm not sure how many of Renn's contacts would still be willing to consider us. We might have a hard time finding employment for a little while." The Trianii hesitated before asking, "Are you certain you wish to come with us?"

Kara considered her response. A whole host things came to her. Some were witty, some were emotional. Finally, she settled on, "Yes".


End file.
